A member of the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas (CSPOG) has revealed that Ghana’s oil and gas industry will take a nosedive in the next 10 years if some changes are not made in the sector.
Speaking on Top Story on Joy FM Tuesday, Dr Stephen Manteaw, said data available shows the country has not made any major move in the past five years to invest in oil exploration.
Thus, the country has been dependent on the three oil fields it has, Dr Manteaw said, adding that the oil at these fields is being depleted.
“If we are not careful as a country, in less than 10 years, our oil and gas industry will take a nosedive. if you look at the production data, you find that we are almost exhausting our reserves.
“Take Jubilee and we have about half already, gone. You take TEN fields and we are about one third gone, and Sankofa Gye Nyame is about a quarter gone.”
“So unless we make any new discovery in less than 10 years our oil industry will be on its knees, we will have no oil industry and therefore no oil revenue to finance our free SHS and so this is dire.”
Dr Mantaew added that many multinational companies which were exploiting the oil are also shifting to renewable energy as part of the world’s new energy transition agenda.
He explained that this new move will make it tasking for Ghana o get investors to help produce oil.
He stated that Ghana will need its domestic oil company to take charge of the exploration and the production of oil.
“That is why it becomes urgent for the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to begin to take its operatorship role seriously. If we can get any of the international partners that will support GNPC in that regard, I will encourage the government to give that support and to provide whatever it will take for GNPC to build this capability.”
Dr Manteaw’s comment comes after the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas (CSPOG) warned of an “imminent collapse” of the country’s petroleum industry.
In a statement, CSPOG observes that “Ghana’s oil and gas industry faces grim prospects, as the world turns its attention from fossil fuels to renewables”.
They added that the country will soon find it impossible to attract new investors with the capacity to explore and produce the substantial oil reserves still sitting untapped mostly offshore.
Dr Manteaw told Evans Mensah that government will need to act quickly to empower the GNPC and build their capability to help salvage the situation.
“Until GNPC moves into operatorship with the support of the companies currently operating in the country it will be difficult to be able to rake in much revenue.
“Going forward we are encouraging that perhaps when we talk about empowerment we will put some of our oil revenue where our mouths lie.”
“That means giving GNPC that opportunity with additional revenue to buy into some of the ongoing projects and then with the revenue they derive from those project they can up their take in other projects. That will build that momentum towards full operatorship.”
