New energy laws to bring transparency into petroleum industry – Energy Minister

The Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko has revealed that the government is preparing some new laws to ensure transparency, fairness, and competitiveness in the petroleum sector.

Building on other enactments made by other governments, the minister said that two regulations are near completion and its enactment will ensure accountability of petroleum revenue.

“Two other regulations, agency and data management regulations are near completion and expected to be submitted to parliament in August 2017 for passage into Law. Additionally, a draft general petroleum regulations is expected to be passed into law in 2018” he said.

According to him, a number of laws have enhanced the existing petroleum laws in Ghana, for which he cited the petroleum revenue management Amendment Act 2015, Act 893 as one that has provided a framework for the collection allocation and management of petroleum revenue in an accountable and sustainable manner.

“The passing of these laws has ushered the development of Ghana’s fledging petroleum industry into a new face. This face has come with new challenges as the country moves into the actual development, production and utilization of its oil and gas resources” he said

Speaking at the Stakeholder Forum on Oil Discovery, the minister indicated that important subsidiary legislation has been enacted to bring further predictability to the industry.

He then mentioned the petroleum local content participation law LI 2204 as one that aimed at enabling Ghanaian’s to benefit from upstream petroleum business and also expand in-country value creation.

Giving an account of regulations enacted since the discovery of oil 10 years now, Boakye Agyarko mentioned the Petroleum exploration and production, measurement and regulation law LI 2246 as one that had the objective of ensuring accurate measurement and allocation of petroleum which forms the basis for the determination of revenue that accrues for the Republic.

He further briefed the audiences gathered about the government’s commitment to ensuring transparency and accountability in the petroleum sector.

“The country has set up a public interest and accountability committee to deal with challenges relating to the transparency and democratic accountability with respect to the use of petroleum revenue and had also extended the coverage of the EITI initiative to include oil and gas,” he said

He further revealed that a regulation on the competitive tending process is expected to commence in 2018 and that would not only promote transparency, fairness, and competition but will also allow the state to award to those bids that promise to maximize economic recovery of Ghana’s oil and gas resource.