Government asked to pass regulations for oil and gas industry

The Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas has called on the government to pass regulations to help ensure effective implementation of the policies and laws governing the country’s oil and gas sector.

Dr. Steve Manteaw, Chairman of the Civil Society Platform on Oil Gas, said gaps still remained in the Petroleum Revenue Management Law and the Petroleum Commission Law passed in 2010 to govern the country’s Oil and Gas sector.

He said the lacuna needed to be bridged to ensure that the country converted her hydrocarbon endowments into lasting benefits.

He was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Tamale on Wednesday on the sidelines of a day’s consultation organized by the platform to collate views of the citizenry from the northern sector of the country on the potential challenges of the implementation of the laws.

The platform had already held similar consultations in the southern and middle belts of the country and the outcome would be made available to government for remedial measures to address the challenges.

The consultation was sponsored by the World Bank as part of its capacity building strategy for the country’s Oil and Gas sector.

Dr. Manteaw said “it is good to have the policy for government to come out with regulations and structures on how we are going to get there”.

He said the platform had in its possession a document prepared by the Petroleum Commission that demands local companies wishing to provide services to oil companies have between one to five million dollars turnover rates, including high registration fees.

He said such demands would only discourage local companies from participating in the oil and gas industry as service providers and thereby defeating the purpose of the country’s local content policy.