Government set to roll-out 10-year energy master plan

The Ministry of Planning has hinted of Government's plans to develop and implement a ten-year Power Sector Master Plan (PSMP) which would be reviewed to meet the medium-to-long term energy needs.

The intervention will target reduction in generation, transmission and distribution losses to promote demand management while reducing the operational inefficiencies in energy supply and distribution.

According to the Government's seven-year development plan prepared by the Ministry of Planning and made available to the Ghana News Agency, the initiative would significantly boost energy conservation.

According to the plan, the operationalization of the energy strategy formed part of moves to reposition the country and develop the downstream petroleum sector to become the regional hub of energy in the near future.

The creation of this hub will accelerate the growth of Ghana’s petroleum sub-sector and make it a major player in the economy.

To achieve that, Government through the National Petroleum Commission (NPC) will continue to unearth and showcase Ghana's hydrocarbon prospectively in the open onshore and offshore to Ghanaians and the international petroleum industry.

This would serve as the prelude to Ghana's first competitive bidding block for exploration and production rights in Ghana.

The Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC) will accelerate the reconnaissance exploration programme in the Voltarian basin to delineate areas that merit detailed oil exploration to grow the national petroleum reserves.

This is in accordance with petroleum exploration and production Act, 2016 (Act 919) to deepen transparency in the sector by accelerating work on the development of regulations and the competitive bidding processes for the award of blocks for petroleum exploration and production.

For Ghanaian companies to succeed in the petroleum, oil and gas wealth creation, Government would encourage the use of local expertise, goods and services and effectively build their skills and capacities for transfer of technology and know-how.

The Government has equally pledged to improve transparency and utilisation of the nation's oil and gas resources and revenues to spearhead human development.

To this end, its oil and gas revenues would be invested in growth-inducing and pro-poor programmes, reduce rising inequalities to promote equal national development.