As part of government’s effort to judiciously explore and exploit the country’s hydrocarbon resources, the Ministry of Petroleum together with its sector agencies attended a retreat at Ada to fashion-out strategies that will ensure the sector contributes toward the transformational agenda being pursued by President John Dramani Mahama.
Welcoming participants, the Minister for Petroleum Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah expressed appreciation to all the sector agencies for taking time out of their busy schedule to attend the event.
“As you may recall, we met here about a year ago to strategise on our 2015 work programme.
I am glad to observe that though 2015 was very challenging, we performed creditably and achieved most of our targets,” he stated.
Mr. Buah observed that creation of the new Ministry of Petroleum in 2015 presented a daunting task, which required reorganisation and refocusing of the ministry while reprioritizing its programmes and projects.
To this end, the minister stated that the ministry has acquitted itself creditably well.
He therefore congratulated all the major stakeholders for their individual and collective efforts.
Highlighting some of the achievements, Mr. Buah noted that: “Significant progress has been made in preparation for first oil from the TEN and OTCP project; various securitisation packages for the ENI Project have been concluded; significant advances toward development of the Greater Jubilee Full Field Development (GJFFD) have been made and await a revised Plan of Development (PoD); the Exploration and Production (E&P) bill has been finalised and laid before Parliament; significant progress has been made in implementing the Local Content Regulation L.I 2204; and significant Local Content milestones have been achieved with the enhanced participation of Ghanaians in procurement of TEN and ENI Projects”.
Mr. Buah thanked the Petroleum Commission (PC), the Upstream Regulator, for good work done in ensuring implementation of the L.I 2204.
He stated that: “Because of leadership from the ministry with support from GNPC and PC, we have seen a lot of Ghanaian companies actively winning contracts and participating in the Industry”.
The minister also indicated that significant achievements were made in the area of Gas Commercialisation.
“The Atuabo Gas Project has been completed and is delivering gas to our thermal plants; LPG from the Gas Plant is now available to the domestic market; the Gas Master Plan has been finalised, and we have made significant achievements in our quest to have an effective reverse flow and ultimately build a dedicated pipeline from Takoradi to Tema,” he observed.
On the downstream sub-sector, the minister indicated that significant achievements were made.
He therefore commended National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST), Ghana Oil Company Ltd. (GOIL), Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs) for collaborating effectively in 2015 to present Ghanaians with a buoyant downstream sector, and urged them to continue the hard work.
On full deregulation of the downstream sector, the minister stated that: “The Petroleum Price Liberalisation has been successfully implemented.
This has been possible because of our collaboration,” he added. He therefore encouraged them to continue working closely together, because for him “it pays to work together”.
The minister commended BOST for the expansion and rehabilitation of petroleum product storage depots and transportation, especially the Bolgatanga depot — which recovered petroleum products worth millions of dollars that had beentrapped in pipelines for about a decade.
Mr Buah finally congratulated the sector agencies for their immense contributions towards achievements in 2015 and urged everyone to clearly bring out issues identified in the 2016 work programmes for discussions.
The meeting then focused on the strategies for the 2016 work programme and how to successfully implement it.
Each sector agency was thus given an opportunity to present its work programmes and defend them.
Dignitaries present included Deputy Petroleum Minister Benjamin Dagadu; Chief Director of the Petroleum Ministry, Prof Thomas Mba Akabzaa; Chief Executives and Board Chairs of sector agencies; Directors from the Ministry of Petroleum, and representatives from Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Enterprise Development Centre (EDC), and the State Enterprise Commission.
Source: B&FT Online