Energy Ministry replies Mahama over 'wasted years' comment

A tweet shared by former president John Dramani Mahama on February 7, 2023, has compelled the Energy Ministry to respond with a statement titled "Ghana's oil-producing profile under President Akufo-Addo unassailable".

In the statement, the ministry makes a list of projects the Nana-Addo administration has embarked on in the oil sector.

According to the Ministry, "under the Akufo-Addo presidency, Ghana has seen an unprecedented oil well drilling success rate from all exploration wells drilled from 2017 to date."

It added that "out of seven exploration wells drilled during the period, six of them were successful resulting in 7 discoveries."

John Dramani Mahama had accused the Akufo-Addo-led government of their lack of efforts aimed at increasing the country's oil production in the upstream sector over the last seven years.

According to him, greed and ineptitude against national interest have engulfed the current government which has resulted in the lack of development in the oil and gas sector.

In a tweet posted on February 6, 2023, John Mahama said described the development as 'wasted years' despite his [NDC] administration handing over two new oil fields [TEN and Sankofa] to the Akufo-Addo government in 2017.

“Wasted years! We bequeathed to the Akufo-Addo government two new oil fields, TEN and Sankofa. Greed and ineptitude as against national interest mean a sad reality of no additional production activity in our upstream oil sector in the last 7 years,” John Mahama earlier wrote.

But the Energy Ministry pointed out that, "On the back of the available evidence, the Ministry wishes to state unequivocally, that the former President's assertion cannot be supported by the available facts and therefore must be treated with the utmost contempt it deserves."

It added that the Akufo-Addo government has discovered seven new oil fields from 2017 to date.

“It cannot be lost on John Mahama and his followers, that oil production is capital intensive, high risk and dependent on the availability of investor funds, market conditions as well as prevailing global trends among others at the time discoveries are made. Thus, for John Mahama to claim that President Akufo-Addo has wasted seven years without additional production activity exposes him as a man who has no compelling knowledge of the upstream oil and gas industry.

“For the record, under the Akufo-Addo presidency, Ghana has seen an unprecedented oil well drilling success rate from all exploration wells drilled from 2017 to date. Out of seven (7) exploration wells drilled during the period, six (6) of them were successful resulting in 7 discoveries.

“These discoveries are: Aker's Pecan South East (2018), AGM's Nyankom-1X (2019), Springfield's Afina-1X (2019), Eni's Akoma-1X (2019), Eni's Eban-1X (2021) and Eni's Aprokuma-1X (Albian and Cenomanian discoveries) (2022),” parts of the statement read.

See the full statement below



SSD/FNOQ