We stand by our position on Govt-Aker Energy deal – IMANI

Policy think-thank IMANI says its position on the contractual agreement between government of Ghana and Aker Energy of Norway remains unchanged despite a purported clarification of issues by government.

Government says IMANI goofed when it sought to question portions of the contractual agreement between the government of Ghana and Aker Energy.

IMANI at a recent public advocacy program challenged what it says were various acts of omissions on the part of the Government of Ghana in respect of the plan of development submitted by Aker Energy and on behalf of all the contracting parties in the Petroleum Agreement (PA) covering the Deep Water Tano/Cape Three Points (DWT/CTP) contract area.

But the Energy Minister John Peter Amewu at a news briefing in Accra described the claims by IMANI as total falsehood.

In providing some background information on the agreement, Mr. Amewu said the PA covering the DWT/CTP contract area operated by Aker Energy was executed on 8^thFebruary, 2006 between the Government of Ghana -GNPC, AMERADA HESS Corporation, Lukoil and FUELTRADE subsequently farmed in 2015.

He disclosed that Fueltrade’s participating interest was set at 2% for which it paid about 9 million USD with a performance guarantee of 2 million USD.

“The contract area has 7 discoveries namely pecan north, almond, cob, beech, pecan, paradise and hickory north. The first five are oil discoveries while paradise and hickory north are gas discoveries. Aker Energy acquired the interest of AMERADA HESS Ghana Limited in February 2018 and proceeded to continue the unfinished works under the programme of appraisal to HESS” he added.

But IMANI’s Vice President Lawyer Kofi Bentil insists his outfit was right in raising the issues which has gotten the government to explain matters to the public.

“I think that we’re all looking for the good of this country and I can understand that criticism is difficult but we stand by our work. We stand by the fact that this $30bn worth of oil was discovered at a time when exploration was over. We stand by our position that this means the oil belongs to Ghana and we should enter a negotiation with them and to that extent we’ve not been deligent in that respect. We stand by our position that it took too long for them to respond to the BOD even though there were clear illegalities therein. So we stand by the things that we’ve said. We just think that in future it should not be necessary for us to come out and prompt them the way we’ve had to do in this manner.”

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