Page 9 - AfrOil Week 44 2022

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

In the meantime, he said, the Ghanaian econ- oil-burning plants.
omy is bearing the economic burdens aris- Eni also has a licence for the Sanko-
ing from the Sankofa Gas Project deal with fa-Gye-Nyame (SGN) oilfields within the block,
Eni. Since the government cannot reduce the which hold about 500mn barrels of oil. It began
amount it pays for the gas, he explained, it can- extracting oil from the field in 2017 and has a
not cut the price of electricity produced by the 44.44% stake in the project while also serving
thermal power plant (TPP) that burns the gas. as operator.
The Sankofa Gas Project is a multi-bil- The remaining equity is split between Vitol
lion-dollar initiative supported by the World (Switzerland), with 35.56%, and Ghana National
Bank that aims to bring more than 1 trillion Petroleum Corp. (GNPC), with 20%.
cubic feet (28.32bn cubic metres) of natural gas Ghana’s government has ordered Eni to uni-
from the Sankofa section of Ghana’s Offshore tise Sankofa with Afina, an oilfield within the
Cape Three Points (OCTP) block to shore for adjacent West Cape Three Points-2 (WCTP-2)
use in domestic power generation. The pro- licence area that holds around 1.5bn barrels of
ject is designed to support about 1,000 MW of oil and 19.8bn cubic metres of gas. However,
gas-fired power-generating capacity in Ghana, Eni has been unable to reach agreement with
thereby replacing older and more polluting fuel Springfield Exploration and Production, the

Ghana has set in motion plan to import

affordable fuel, Information Minister says

GHANA GHANA’S government has made plans to make
cheap petroleum products on the domestic mar-
ket to help consumers, since prices have risen
significantly since the start of the year, Informa-
tion Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told Joy
News on October 31.
He explained that the Energy Ministry was
working with major suppliers to secure supplies
of low-cost fuels, adding that the National Petro-
leum Authority (NPA) and the ministry would
provide details in the coming days.
“In President [John Kofi Agyekum] Kufuor’s
time, we did it with Nigeria, [with] Sahara
[Energy] lifting for us, and you could have sup-
ply credit lines and a fixed price that you could NPA will work with the Energy Ministry to secure fuel supplies (Photo: NPA.gov.gh)
bank on,” he was quoted as saying on Joy News’
PM Express. cushion Ghanaians from the surge in prices of
“[It] is a very similar arrangement that has the commodities.
already commenced, and I am expecting that For example, MP John Abu Jinapor, a rank-
in the coming weeks the NPA and the Energy ing member on the Mines and Energy Commit-
Ministry will have the opportunity to provide tee, has been urging the government to halt the
the details.” rise in prices.
In an address to the nation on October 30, “In less than three months, the government
President Nana Akufo-Addo said that his has received over GHS 8bn from our petroleum
administration was working to secure reliable resources. So in three months, the government
and regular sources of affordable petroleum has received more than it projected for the whole
products for domestic consumption. year, so the government is making supernormal
The move is expected to bring some respite profits,” Jinapor told journalists on October 2,
and stability to the persistent rise in fuel prices. according to a Citi News report. “In fact, even
Currently, petrol and diesel are being sold at with the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy
average prices of GHS18 ($1.31) and GHS23 which are supposed to subsidise fuel, the gov-
($1.67) per litre, respectively, up from the previ- ernment projected that in the first two quarters,
ous rates of GHS15 ($1.09) and GHS19 ($1.38) it will receive GHS269mn and as we speak, from
per litre, which were already seen as exorbitant, the Ministry of Finance’s own record, the Gov-
Joy News reports. ernment has received GHS800mn. And so this
This comes as opposition parliamen- notion that the Government is not making any
tarians are calling on the administration to money is a fallacy.”

Week 44 03•November•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9