Outdooring day fixed for oil

Barring any hitch, crude oil will be pumped from the Jubilee Field as scheduled in December.A high level meeting is said to have been held last month, between the Managing Director of Tullow Oil and the Minister of Energy on one hand, and the Presidency, on the other, on the issue.

The meeting tentatively set a date between December 4 and 17, for outdooring of the event, a reliable source at the Ministry of Energy told the Times newspaper in Accra.The source did not disclose how much oil would be pumped that day, but indicated it would be enough to meet the target of the 120,000 barrels a day . Meanwhile, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, has indicated to the Times that income from the oil production would be factored into the 2011 budget.

He said the Ministry had been in touch with the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) to know the amount of oil to be pumped within the stipulated period, and the income which would accrue. Dr. Duffour said such knowledge would then inform the Ministry’s decision to include its revenue in the budget.

He did not disclose the prioritized areas in the budget that the oil income would be applied to, but said that “as soon as the figures are made available, we will know the areas the income will help to support”.