Alex Mould, a former Chief Executive Officer at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has lamented the situation where the government has bestowed massive historical damage on the nation’s oil and gas industry which could have far-reaching consequences on the economy.
“The damage done to the sector by the government is incomparable with that of the shambolic agreement with Power Distribution Service (PDS), which attracted a storm of criticism from industry watchers resulting in a radical political attack on the country’s upstream petroleum sector which can have serious implication for the future of our upstream petroleum industry,” he stated on his Facebook timelines.
He bemoaned the situation where the President rushed the Aker Energy petroleum amendments to approve significant changes to the upstream petroleum sector without following due processes which said agreement was signed between the Government of Ghana, Ghana National Petroleum Commission and Aker Energy Ghana Limited.
“I hinted that the government was preparing to pass amendments to the existing regulations and laws governing the upstream petroleum sector provided Aker Energy agreed to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s demands. It is alleged that the government among other demands, asked Aker Energy to ensure the usage of only designated/chosen local partners (mainly controlled by people associated with the leadership of the NPP), even if these local partners are not qualified or even if these foreign oil services companies have already chosen their local partners.
“At a recent oil and gas conference held at the University of East London in the United Kingdom, I pointed out to the Minister of Energy, John Peter Amewu, not to approve Aker Energy’s Plan of Development (PoD) which is in relation to the Pecan oil field, because it will rob the nation of billions of dollars both immediately and over the next 30 years.
“The minister subsequently assured Ghanaians that he would not give the Aker Energy’s PoD (which was lying on his table) that opportunity but did not,” Mr Mould stressed. -ghanaweb.com
