Private legal practitioner Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has rubbished claims by think tank IMANI Africa that Ghana stands to lose up to $30 billion in an estimated 450-550 million barrels of oil discovered by Aker Energy.

“It will be curious to know how IMANI came about that figure. It looks as if they simply multiplied the estimated 450-550m barrels in the Pecan 4A field by $65 per barrel! Truth is so far, the estimated average recoverable rate of oil in Ghana has been well below 28%! They should come again. What is beyond dispute is that Ghana stands to gain between 55-60% of net oil produced from the Aker block throughout the life of the field,” the high-ranking member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and relative to President Nana Akufo-Addo stated in a Facebook post on Friday, 26 April 2019.

IMANI Africa said at a press conference on Thursday, 25 April 2019 that Aker discovered the oil after its exploration licence had expired in 2014 and failed to go through the right processes, thereby making their exploration activities illegal.

IMANI said the Pecan X and Pecan Y wells in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points block (DWT/CTP) are essentially not covered by any of the Petroleum Agreements (PA) in force, hence those additional finds require a new Petroleum Agreement to be negotiated under the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act, 2016 Act 919.

Vice-President of IMANI Africa, Mr Kofi Bentil, questioned why the government had not taken action to secure what is due the country.

In Mr Otchere-Darko’s view: “Whatever is being done by this government, Ghanaians should be confident that Akufo-Addo will ensure that we realise assets which were not producing and from all proper understanding, Ghana stands to gain far more than what we stood to gain, if any, just two years ago. The plan is to develop a petroleum industry not just to take a small share of our own oil stuck under the sea”.


Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM