After using the tax payer's money in hard currencies to buy the numerous oil rigs by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), with the view of using it to explore oil from Ghanaian waters, especially the Tano oilfields and beyond which unfortunately never materialized, the rigs are now being dismantled and the needed parts offered for sale as scraps to scrap dealers in Africa.
As you read this piece, engineers might have finished dismantling the K/S Asterie, one of the rigs, which has been abandoned in the Gabonese waters for some time now, with the scrap dealers struggling for the parts.
One Mr. Amissah Arthur has already been dispatched to Gabon by the new GNPC management headed by Mr. Boateng to supervise the dismantling exercise, after all efforts to get buyers to buy the entire rig had proved futile. Nobody actually showed interest, according to Chronicle sources.
Chronicle intelligence has also picked another information that one of the rigs which has also been abandoned in Angolan waters for years, now is also being offered for sale, but nobody has so far shown interest in buying it, despite numerous adverts by the GNPC management. Sources within the corporation hinted the Chronicle that this one too may be dismantled and the parts sold as scraps to scrap dealers if management still finds it difficult to get a buyer.
Already, another rig, Production Pioneers that is also owned by the GNPC and hitherto anchored at the shores of Sekondi has been sold to an Indian company whose name is not available to the Chronicle yet. The new buyer has since towed the vessel away as it cannot be sighted anymore.
Investigations carried by the ubiquitous Chronicle into this sorry state of GNPC assets and its subsequent sale as scraps, the valllue of which may be far away from the actual value of the rigs, revealed that management took what appears to be a hard decision after the Gabonese and the Angolan authorities had brought severe pressure to bear on both the GNPC and the government of Ghana, to remove the vessels from their waters, or be prepared to face the consequences if they fail to carry on with their orders.
Chronicle learnt that after the Angolan and their Gabonese counterparts had issued the threat, GNPC quickly advertised for the sale of the vessels, but up to date nobody has shown interest in buying them. Management therefore decided to dismantle the vessels, especially the one in Gabon, for the parts to be sold as scraps to avoid trouble with the authorities over there.
This reporter again gathered from sources within the GNPC that the Co-operator and the Tender Rocket, which are the only vessels left in the name of GNPC, and currently anchored in the Ghanaian waters, are also being offered for sale even though no pressure has been brought to bear on management like the Angolan and the Gabonese authorities did. The reporter could however not gather whether they have been bought or not. D511 was another oil rig sold earlier by the new management.
When Mr. Boateng was contacted on his mobile phone last week, he confirmed that the aforementioned vessels are being offered for sale by his administration. He also confirmed that management has sent Mr. Amissah Arthur to supervise the dismantling of the K/S Asterie in Gabon for the parts to be sold as scraps after management had failed to get a buyer.
Commenting on why they took such a decision, Mr. Boateng said looking at the Act that established the GNPC, the corporation is supposed to be dealing in exploration only, but incidentally the Tsatsu Tsikata administration veered into production, which to him is very good, but an expensive venture. Boateng further told the Chronicle that because of this decision, the corporation bought a number of vessels including the Production Pioneer that has already been sold. This vessel, he continued, was bought about ten years ago but it was never used.
Boateng who was brought to the corporation by the government to use his experience in banking to direct affairs at the GNPC whose problems are more to do with finances, said at the time the vessel was being brought to Ghana, it broke one of its legs so the GNPC management at the time went and bought another vessel with the view of removing its legs to fix on the production pioneer. That rig also got stuck in Brazilian waters. "It is still there as we talk now," he added.
The managing director told this reporter that after the new NPP government had taken all these things into consideration, his management was directed to concentrate on the purpose for which the corporation was set up, which is the exploration work.
"You will agree with me that we have not gotten the oil, so why should we keep these rigs," he asked and added that even the giants who have made discovery of oil, usually go in to hire the rig to work for them and then return it.
He said his administration cannot continue to pay penalty on these rigs and at the same time spend a lot of money to repair them when the rigs are standing and doing practically nothing.
