The Minister of Energy, John-Peter Amewu, has described as total falsehood a claim made by policy think-tank IMANI-Africa on the country’s potential loss of $30 billion over a deal with Aker Energy.
“Imani [Africa] tried to alarm Ghanaians about a potential loss of $30 billion to the country if the government failed to negotiate a new petroleum agreement with new terms with the DWT/CTP partners,” Mr Amewu said.
“This is absolutely false,” he stressed.
He was addressing journalists in Accra in reaction to the claim made by IMANI-Africa.
The leading think-tank had held a press conference on Thursday, addressed by its Senior Vice President, Kofi Bentil, claiming that the Norwegian oil firm did not have a formal contract with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) before embarking on exploratory activities in the Deep Water Tano-Cape Three Points contract area.
The claim followed that of the Minority in Parliament, which also called for a second look at the latest contract with Aker Energy.
IMANI-Africa had claimed that government’s failure to write to Aker Energy, within the next 30 days, over the oil firm’s plan of development and operation could lead to a devastating loss for the country.
But Mr Amewu said IMANI-Africa may have gotten their analyses wrong due to “its poor understanding of petroleum economics”.
He said there is no basis for a new agreement.
“This is because the work that was done by Aker Energy formed part of an appraisal programme based on the existing petroleum agreement,” he explained.
He allayed fears of IMANI-Africa that Aker Energy had not been written to as regard a review of its new plan of development.
“Aker Energy has as of the 24th day of April, 2019 received the decision of the Ministry of Energy for it to submit a revised PoD and thus, the fear of Imani as expressed is most unfounded.
“A simple phone call to the Ministry of Energy will have allayed this fear but alas! Imani failed to do this and sought to lead the people of this country astray in a move bereft of true facts and proof.”
Source: 3news.com|Ghana