Page 11 - AfrOil Week 05 2022

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Former energy minister faces 20-year

jail sentence over corruption charges

ALGERIA ALGERIA’S former Energy Minister Chakib
Khelil may face 20 years in prison on charges of
corruption, according to the state news agency
APS.
The prosecutor’s office has demanded a
sentence of 20 years for Khelil and 10 years for
Mohamed Meziane, the former head of the
state-owned energy group Sonatrach, who is on
trial in the same case. If the former minister is
sentenced to prison, he will also pay heavy fines
and have all of his assets confiscated, along with
those of his family.
Meziane is already serving a prison term in
Algeria after being convicted of a separate crime.
The corruption case is based on evidence that Chakib Khelil (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
both officials granted undue privileges to foreign
investors and concluded contracts that violated the government in 2010 after being accused of
laws and regulations for the Arzew gas complex fraud and corruption against Sonatrach. Then
in Oran. in 2013, the Algerian judiciary issued an inter-
The 82-year-old Khelil, who served for national arrest warrant against him as part of an
10 years under former President Abdelaziz investigation into the payment of commissions
Bouteflika, is being tried in absentia, as he is by a subsidiary of the Italian energy group Eni to
currently on the run outside Algeria. He left obtain contracts in Algeria. ™

Ghana’s government restores Price

Stabilisation and Recovery Levy

GHANA GHANA’S National Petroleum Authority (NPA)
has reinstated the Price Stabilisation and Recov-
ery Levy (PSRL) on gasoline, diesel and LPG,
effective as of February 1, Joy Online reports.
The levy’s restoration follows the expira-
tion of a directive from President Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who had previously
instructed the NPA to extend the suspension of
the PSRL through the end of January.
“We hereby wish to inform all Oil Marketing
Companies (OMCs) and LPG Marketing Com-
panies (LPGMCs) that effective 1st February,
2022, the PSRL on petrol, diesel and LPG have
been fully restored,” read the statement, which
was published earlier this week.
It noted that gasoline would be subject to a NPA had previously extended the PSRL until January 31 (Photo: Ghana NPA)
levy of GHS0.16 ($0.25) per litre, while diesel
would be subject to a levy of GHS0.14 ($0.022) 2015 and uses the proceeds of the levy to cover
per litre and LPG to a levy of GHS0.14 ($0.022) the cost of subsidies for premix fuel, a type of
per kg. marine fuel distributed for use by fishermen,
Ghana’s government introduced the PSRL in and residual fuel oil (RFO).

Week 05 02•February•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11