Ghana government signs $7b Cape Three Points oil and gas deal

The government of Ghana, ENI and Vitol companies on Tuesday signed an agreement for work to start on the offshore Cape Three Points Integrated Oil and Gas Project.

President John Dramani Mahama and Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur were at the signing ceremony.

Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Minister of Energy and Mr Alex Mould, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana National Petroleum Company, signed for Ghana for Ghana.

Mr Antionio Vella, Chief Upstream Officer for ENI signed for his company and Mr Ian Taylor, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Vitol signed for his company.

The completion of the $7 billion project would not only add 1.15 trillion cubic feet of gas but would also pull the country out of the current power deficit that had compelled the service providers to resort to load-shedding.

President Mahama said it formed 12 percent of the $53.5 of the total Foreign Direct Investment for Africa in 2015.

He said it was a landmark investment on the development of oil and gas to leverage power as it would subsequently add 1, 100 megawatts to the existing pool.

Mr Taylor pledged to collaborate effectively with others to harness all the potentials that would step up the power generation of the country in the coming years.

Mr Chiri Paganu, the Vice President of ENI, said they would execute their side of the bargain to ensure Ghana’s socio-economic growth through the exploitation of oil and gas.

Mr Buah on behalf of the people of Ghana pledged to work assiduously to ensure the successful executive of the project.

Vitol is a Switzerland-based Dutch energy and commodity company. ENI is an Italian oil and gas company headquartered in Rome with operations in 79 countries with market capitalization of € 68 billion Euros.

Source: GNA