Ghana to establish petroleum hub - Energy Minister

Government has announced plans to establish a petroleum hub with the aim to accelerate the growth of Ghana’s petroleum downstream sub-sector and make it a major player in the economy.

The Minister of Energy Boakye Agyarko who disclosed this at a maiden forum for energy sector CEOs noted that the petroleum hub is one of the Government’s strategic anchor initiatives that will serve as a new pillar of growth in the Ghanaian economy.

"The Petroleum Hub project will increase the presence of major international oil trading and storage companies create regional trading champions and encourage joint ventures between local and international companies for Foreign Direct Investments, Technology and knowledge transfer and wealth creation," he said.

Highlighting the vision and goals for the sector, he said: “With regard to plans for the upstream sector this year, the ministry will pursue aggressive basin promotion, especially in the Central, Eastern, outer continental shelf and Voltaian basins to attract competent companies, particularly majors, into these basins to increase exploration activities.

“Commercial discoveries from such exploration will not only increase the country’s reserves but also create the needed jobs and significantly increase revenue to the state,” he said.

Mr Agyarko further indicated that the ministry intended to implement open and transparent public competitive tender processes in the award of petroleum blocks.

“It is our target this year to conduct the first bidding rounds for the award of exploration and production rights to successful companies,” he said.

He, therefore, urged the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Petroleum Commission (PC) to work hard to realise the set targets to improve on investor confidence in the petroleum sector.

Touching on the implementation of the LPG policy, the minister said the government realized the need for a policy to promote LPG and further aggressively pursue an increase in access towards the goal of 50 percent access by 2030.

“The policy is to also provide direction and a framework for safety legislation and operational standards in the industry,” he said.

Mr Agyarko reiterated the government’s unending commitment to churn out the maximum benefits from the oil and gas industry to the good people of Ghana and generations yet unborn.

“This, I strongly believe, can only be achieved through a sustained and coordinated exploitation of the country’s hydrocarbon resources and the prudent management of the downstream sub-sector. “I am confident that at the end of this forum, we will all leave here with a clearer sense of direction for the effective and integrated development of our oil and gas endowment to play its pivotal role of transforming Ghana’s economy into a middle income status,” he added. Story By: Michael Creg Afful

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