As First Jubilee Oil Inches To The Surface

TAXMEN READY

….Commissioner-General Assures

By J. Ato Kobbie, Managing Editor

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has assured Ghanaians that it is putting in

place adequate measures that would ensure that benefits that would accrue to

government and the people of Ghana were properly accounted for.

In this direction, the GRA has set up an administrative structure and has been

building the capacity of its personnel who would be equipped to deliver on their

responsibility of securing the national interest.

Disclosing this in an exclusive interview with The Business Analyst in Accra

last Monday, the Commissioner-General of GRA, Mr. George Vincent Blankson, said

the Authority has set up a Petroleum Unit headed by top level personnel with the

requisite skills to ensure that the benefits from the oil resource, much of

which would come in the form of royalties and taxes are properly remitted to the

national kitty.

He said the Customs Division of the Authority is going to maintain its presence

on the floating, production, storage and offloading vessel, FPSO Kwame Nkrumah,

which is technically a port, to be able to monitor and check outflows of the oil

before discharge into tankers and certify all exports.

The Petroleum Revenue Management Bill, which is still before Parliament has

assigned the responsibility for the assessment and collection of all revenue

types to the GRA.

Mr. Blankson revealed that a number of personnel of the Authority, have, over

the past months, undergone technical and skills training, including sea survival

skills, as part of the preparation for the responsibility ahead.

The Commissioner-General outlined Customs monitoring role on the FPSO to

include; metering pipes transporting oil and gas as well as the calibration of

pumps.

He said under the powers granted the Commissioner-General by the GRA Act, the

FPSO would soon be declared a port, and treated as such. He said apart from the

oil, imports that come to the platform would be monitored and cleared just as

happens at any port.

Mr. Blankson disclosed that a stakeholders seminar on Oil and Gas held at

Dodowa, some months ago, strategically reviewed the GRA‘s role in the Petroleum

Sector, following which a comprehensive plan was mapped out to ensure that the

Authority was fully prepared to carry out its mandate relating to the taxation

of upstream petroleum operations.

The Commissioner General said some of the measures to be employed by the GRA

included physical surveillance on quantities of oil to be produced; measurement

of oil flow through the installation of electronic seals on the export pipelines

of FPSO Kwame Nkrumah as revenue locks; boat patrols within the vicinity of the

offshore oil field and use of specialized gear for monitoring on the sea,

specialized audit skills and technical support, including consultancy advice.

Mr. Blankson outlined the role of the GRA in the oil production as having to do

with: Assessment of taxes and other revenue from petroleum operations; Audit of

Returns and financial statements; Compliance and Enforcement of the tax laws;

and liaison with other stakeholders in the petroleum industry.

Start-Up To First Oil

Commercial oil from the Jubilee Field is expected in a couple of weeks, after

initial start-up this month, when all the 16 wells of the field, comprising 5

water injection wells, 2 gas injection wells and 9 producers would be brought on

board one at a time (maximum of two), in a controlled manner in order to align

every process and to stabilize production in a sustained manner.

During this period, all operational people, mostly engineers are eagle-eyed to

ensure that the process runs smoothly in a seamless manner to bring the field

online.

It is only when this process is completed that President John Evans Atta Mills

would undertake the official commissioning of first oil from the Jubilee Field.

Under the first phase of production, the Jubilee Field is expected to peak at

120,000 barrels per day from next year. The Business Analyst

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