Page 9 - AfrOil Week 22 2021
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AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil
Jordan was then forced to turn to the interna- This rise was partly a result of the lack of gas
tional market for oil and gas supplies. As a result, supply from Egypt on favourable terms, but it
its overall energy import bill climbed, moving also stemmed from higher global oil and gas
from JOD2.4bn ($3.4bn) in 2011 to JOD4.4bn prices in 2011-2014. In any event, the higher bills
in 2015. placed a heavy financial burden on NEPCO.
POLICY
PIAC urges Accra to collect
overdue surface rental payments
GHANA GHANA’S Public Interest and Accountability But the report also noted that several of the
Committee (PIAC), a state agency that mon- companies that held licences for Ghanaian fields
itors the handling of petroleum revenues, has had actually overpaid on surface rentals and
urged the government to collect overdue surface were now owed money by the state. It named
rental payments from the operators of multiple these firms as Heritage (GOSCO), the operator
offshore licence areas. of East Keta (EK), due $106,521.86; Springfield
In its recently released 2020 Annual Report, Exploration, the operator of West/Cape Three
PIAC noted that foreign investors had accumu- Points 2 (W/CTP2), due $16,863.42; and Amni-
lated more than $2.1mn worth of arrears on this Ghana, a state-owned company, due $518.
front last year. This represents a 34.71% rise on In the report, PIAC called on the government
the previous year’s figure of $1.57mn, it said. to order the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)
The committee listed the debtors in its report, to recover the overdue surface rental payments,
naming Swiss Africa Oil Co., the operator of the plus interest. It pointed out that investors’ failure
Onshore/Offshore Keta Delta (O/OKD) block, to meet their obligations in 2020 had prevented
as the largest with an overdue surface rental the country’s Petroleum Revenue Fund (PRF)
bill of $712,500. It identified the other debtors from collecting enough money to cover the cost
as: Britania-U, the operator of South West Salt- of certain development projects.
pond (SWSP), owing $657,708.33; Heritage The committee has not made any suggestions
(GOSCO), the operator of East Keta (EK), owing on enforcement mechanisms for debt collec-
$522,366.67; Medea Development, the opera- tion. Nasir Alfa Mohammed, the chairman of
tor of East/Cape Three Points (E/CTP), owing PIAC’s legal sub-committee, said last week that
$156,540; Sahara Energy Fields Ghana, the Ghanaian law did not provide enough support
operator of Shallow Water/Cape Three Points for collection efforts. He pointed to a past exam-
(SW/CTP), owing $71,934.93; UB Resources ple in which one foreign firm quit the country
Ghana, the operator of Offshore/Cape Three without settling its bill for surface rentals, saying
Points South (O/CTPS), owing $67,666.58; and that GRA had given up on the debt because col-
ExxonMobil, the operator of Deepwater/Cape lection was expected to cost more than the total
Three Points (DW/CTP), owing $30. amount due.
Foreign investors owe more than $2.1mn in surface rental payments (Image: Ghana Petroleum Commission)
Week 22 02•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
