Come to Ghana to invest - Amewu tells oil and gas investors

Energy Minister John-Peter Amewu has urged foreigners who are looking for a place to invest in the oil and gas sector to consider choosing Ghana as their preferred destination for investment.

According to him, Ghana has a favourable environment for investment, adding that security of investment is guaranteed.

"Ghana’s political stability, progressive fiscal regime, sanctity of contracts and higher regulatory standards are some of the reasons that should propel investors to consider doing oil and gas business in Ghana," he indicated.

The Energy Minister made this call when he addressed investors at the just ended Africa Oil Week at Cape Town in South Africa.

President Akufo-Addo on October 15, 2018, launched Ghana's maiden licensing bid round in Accra where six oil blocks were offered for bidding.

Three of the blocks are going through competitive bidding process while two blocks would go through direct negotiations.

"These blocks are located in the highly prospective Western sedimentary basin, where we have made several discoveries - producing oil and gas from the Jubilee field, TEN field and the OCTP Block. This simply means that the areas on offer have largely been de-risked," Mr Amewu stressed.

"The Basin also has first-class producing assets, existing production, storage and pipeline infrastructure that could be leveraged to shorten the length of time from discovery to first oil in the event of new discoveries.

"In addition, the congenial and competitive investment environment in the country shows that companies can make higher returns on their investments if you look towards Ghana.

"We have also peacefully resolved the maritime boundary dispute with our Western neighbour, Ivory Coast, and exploration activities have begun in these areas without problems," the Minister explained.

Touching on steps Government of Ghana has, so far, taken to ensure that citizens benefit from the opportunities created by the oil and gas sector, Mr Amewu indicated that government had taken strategic decision to invest in infrastructure that can add value to the country's economy so as to create jobs for the citizenry.

"We are reviving the Tema Dry Dock and Shipyard project and building our fabrication capacity to manufacture top sides of FPSOs, build supply vessels and, in future, undertake FPSO integration in Ghana."

To achieve these objectives, the Government of Ghana has taken giant steps to prepare our people, particularly the youth, with relevant skills, to play front roles across the oil and gas value chain.

"We are equipping our citizenry with the competencies, financial and technical, to undertake activities in the oil and gas value chain under the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Building Programme," he said.

He expressed confidence that the companies that would win the tenders to explore for oil and gas in Ghana would quickly become aligned with "our strategic objectives, to ensure the successful implementation of the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Building Programme."

He reminded investors that it is legally mandatory for them to partner with Indigenous local Ghanaian companies to undertake petroleum activity in our country.