Ghana receives more than $970m in petroleum revenues in 2018 – Report
Ghana received an increased amount of revenues from petroleum to the tune of $977.11 million in 2018 as compared to $540.41 million in 2017.
According to a report by the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), the significant increase was mainly due to an increase in price from an annual average of $53.49 per barrel in 2017 to $70.34 per barrel in 2018 coupled with increased lifting volumes from 5,856,921 barrels in 2017 to 9,783,239 barrels in 2018.
Meanwhile, Dr. Steve Manteaw, the Co-Chair of GHEITI, says Ghana’s participation in the international standards of transparency in regulating the oil and gas sector has helped to better manage the oil and gas sector.
The GHEITI has enhanced the demand side of social accountability, created the platform for public debate and helped in identifying gaps and weaknesses in resource revenue management and the need for improvement in the area.
These have largely contributed to the somewhat sanity in the oil and gas sector as against conflict, underdevelopment and resource curse in some natural resources space; gold and other minerals.
Dr Manteaw was speaking at a stakeholder engagement and dissemination of the report on the Oil and Gas sector for the period 2017 and 2018 in Takoradi.
He said the country must begin focusing the same lens on the gold sector to rectify some mistakes and give hope to future generations.
“Unfortunately, we have not gone back to rectify the mistakes in the mining sector, no structures for royalties or fund allocation for future growth unlike the oil and gas sector where the Oil Stabilization fund is working…we are continuously neglecting intergenerational interest,” he said.
The report said Ghana received $977.11 million as petroleum proceeds in 2018 as compared to $540.41 million in 2017.
In the meantime, a total of $436.75 million had been transferred into the Ghana Petroleum Funds in 2018 compared with $203.83 million dollars in 2017.
The GHEITI report on the Oil and Gas sector for the period 2017 and 2018 is being discussed by stakeholders at a dissemination workshop in Takoradi.
Meanwhile, 2019/2020 reports were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and interruption in the preparation of audited reports by participating business entities.
The report, generated by the Messes Boas and Associates for the GHEITI, said total crude production from the three producing fields; Jubilee, Sankofa-Gye Nyame and TEN in 2018 was 62,770,787 barrels compared to 58,659,625 barrels in 2017.
The GNPC received $201.10 million for equity financing and $104.14 million as a share of the net carried and participating interest.
The Ghana Heritage fund received $131.02 million in the year under review.
The revenue streams under consideration in the report emanated from royalty, carried interest, surface rentals, corporate tax and additional paid interest.
The rest were: training fees and Technology allowance, permit and processing and gas revenue.
The report also provided information on the licencing regime, contracts, state participation, beneficial ownership, exploration production and exports, transaction by state-owned enterprises, among others.
Alhaji Bashiru Mohammed of the Ministry of Finance said the Ministry would continue to support the improvement of the sector.
He said creating the right linkages was Paramount to handling some weaknesses in the sector for improved transparency.
Source: GNA