A Ranking Member of Mines and Energy Committee in parliament, John Jinapor, has lamented the state of Ghana’s petroleum sector, describing it as being characterized by duplicity, underhand dealings and a high level of opacity.
According to him, government’s inability to demonstrate effective leadership in the petroleum sector has led to the unfortunate decision by companies such as Eni to resort to an arbitration process at the International Court of Arbitration against the Government of Ghana.
He revealed that this regrettable situation has led to Ghana being viewed as a hostile investor destination and has given Ghana a bad image in the investor community.
Additionally, Mr Jinapor noted that the unnecessary political interference and underhand dealings under this government has led to investor appetite waning in Ghana’s petroleum industry.
“The management of the petroleum sector under this non-performing and incompetent government has not only been appalling but has been characterized by duplicity, underhand dealings, and a high level of opacity.
John Jinapor
Mr Jinapor stated that the Minority in the past, cautioned the Akuffo-Addo led government on the ExxonMobil and Aker deals when they embarked on a “very reckless path of renegotiating the existing terms of the agreements” without following due process.
The result of this decision, he revealed, is a “complete failure” in the implementation of the two Petroleum Agreements, with ExxonMobil painfully announcing its decision to exit the country’s upstream petroleum sector in 2021.
Nonetheless, the ranking member on parliament’s mines and energy committee disclosed that the prudent policies implemented under the Mahama-led government resulted in investor confidence in the upstream sector soaring, with the attraction of huge investments such as the signing of the Springfield and the second ENI petroleum agreements, which resulted in major oil discoveries for the country.
Reacting to a statement issued by the Ministry of Energy, which sought to “vilify” former President John Dramani Mahama and “denigrate” his contribution to the upstream petroleum sub-sector of the country, he stated that for a government that has supervised the “worst era” in Ghana’s oil and gas sector for almost seven years, to attempt to compare Mr. Akuffo-Addo with Mr. Mahama’s sterling performance leaves much to be desired.
Justifying his stance, he expressed that His Excellency John Mahama, among other things, successfully steered Ghana into the Gas era with the completion of the biggest gas to power projects that have today, eliminated the long LPG queues and given Ghana the cheap fuel needed to power its thermal plants.
Achievements by Mahama in petroleum sector
Mr Jinapor highlighted that Mr Mahama and his team of advisors equally took the bold and decisive action of settling the protracted Maritime boundary dispute with the Republic of Cote D’Ivoire through the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), saving the country an estimated $10 billion in petroleum assets.
This action, he underscored, has been widely acclaimed by industry players as a mark of a true leader who put the country’s interests first.
In his quest to transform Ghana into a major petroleum exploration and production hub for the West African sub-region, Mr Jinapor stated that Mr Mahama ensured the passing of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill (Act 919) in 2016. The new Act, he indicated, replaced the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Law, 1984, Act 84, bringing about greater transparency and prudent management of Ghana’s oil and gas resources.
Furthermore, Mr Jinapor revealed that Mr Mahama ensured the Passage of the Local Content and local participation regulations LI 2204, to ensure the maximization of Ghanaian participation in the upstream sector. Today, he emphasized that under the Akufo-Addo Government, Ghanaians who were empowered are being hounded out of business.
“Unlike the current Akufo-Addo led NPP government, President Mahama, and his solid team, through hard work, successfully saw to the construction of the FPSO Kuffuor and Atta-Mills, and this signalled a major step in the petroleum sector and currently contributing significantly to the unprecedented revenues accruing to the current Akuffo-Addo government.”
John Jinapor
Mr Jinapor stated that a responsible government would have worked hard to consolidate the gains chalked by the Mahama administration on the existing petroleum agreements. However, he lamented that the Akuffo-Addo led Government resorted to “unnecessary political interference” by varying some of the agreements to the detriment of the nation.
He averred that rather than developing the “obsession of always launching scathing attacks” on the person of former President Mahama, the Government and, for that matter the Ministry of Energy should rather use the opportunity to inform Ghanaians of what has become of their failed promise to achieve the target of 500bpd of oil.
“It is an incontrovertible fact that President John Mahama laid a solid foundation in the upstream petroleum sector, with a clear vision narrowing into a promising future. On the contrary, the Akuffo-Addo and Bawumia led government, having added no value to the sector, will go down in history as the worst Government as far as the petroleum sub-sector is concerned.”
John Jinapor
Following this, Mr Jinapor advised President Akufo-Addo and the Minister of Energy, to” concentrate their energies” towards redeeming the “sinking image” of the country in the eyes of the international community. Additionally, he urged government to rescue the petroleum sector from imminent collapse and desist from the “unnecessary pedestrian attacks” on former President Mahama in a “desperate attempt” to tarnish his image.
