Your Excellency, the Ambassador of Ghana to the United States,
The Deputy Minister for Energy, Colleague Ministers,
Heads, Board Chairs, and Board Members of Sector Agencies present
The CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre,
Representatives of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy, Captains of the Oil and Gas Industry,
The American Chamber of Commerce,
The Ghana Houston Chamber of Commerce,
Delegates, Exhibitors, Friends from the media,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I welcome you all to the Ghana Pavilion and extend to you warm greetings from the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Ladies and gentlemen, today we cut the ribbon to present and showcase Ghana’s pavilion at the OTC, to demonstrate to the world that truly, our petroleum industry is awash with exciting investment opportunities. We are here not only to tell the world about our flourishing Upstream Industry but also to create awareness about opportunities in our Downstream Industry.
In the upstream space, Ghana has a lot of untapped hydrocarbon resources, both offshore and onshore, which we hope to sustainably explore and exploit through partnerships with private companies.
In Ghana, Exploration and Production (E&P) licenses are awarded through open, transparent, and competitive public tender processes. However, E&P licenses may be awarded through direct negotiations without public tender if direct negotiations represent the most efficient manner to achieve optimal exploration, development, and production of petroleum resources in a defined area. Either way, prospective contractors must have the requisite technical and financial abilities to undertake petroleum activities.
There are also farm-in opportunities in some of the existing licenses for prospective investors to operate through existing Petroleum Agreements without having to go through block application and negotiation processes.
Ghana’s sedimentary basins are de-risked and highly prospective and our petroleum industry is regulated by clear, predictable, and suitable fiscal, legal, and regulatory regimes. In addition to these, the congenial business atmosphere, the hospitality of the Ghanaian people and more importantly our relative political stability should make every investor consider Ghana as an investment destination.
Ladies and gentlemen, moving downstream, Ghana aspires to become a hub for refined petroleum products in the West African sub-region and beyond by the year 2030. The hub involves the development of infrastructure such as refineries, port terminal facilities, storage facilities, petrochemical plants as well as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals with a network of pipelines. In addition, it is within our plans to develop Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) facilities to serve as alternative sources of fuel for transportation. CNG is a cheaper and cleaner fuel than the other fossil sources and its use is in line with our broader goal transition progressively from carbon-intensive sources to low carbon sources of energy.
Ladies and gentlemen, the global advocacy for energy transition and cleaner energy is not lost on us in Africa. Indeed, Ghana remains committed to its SDG 7 goals and has been working towards clean energy in its energy mix through several initiatives and policies.
But the fact remains that gas, especially Africa’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is the cleanest of fossil fuel, and harnessing it to power generators can make a huge impact on the drive to accelerate universal coverage. Without a clear and purposeful drive towards cheaper electricity through gas exploration, our goal of universal coverage and industrialization will make little or no impact.
We cannot, therefore, take oil and gas exploration out of our conversation towards a sustainable future and our aim of eliminating energy poverty, since our needs and priorities are vastly different from those of industrialized countries as we are at a different stage of our growth process.
Ghana, and by extension the rest of oil-producing Africa, must be allowed to grow her renewable mix at her own rate whilst using her natural resources to power her economy and eliminate energy poverty could be counter-productive and further widen the economic gap between the North and the South.
We seek more, not less exploration, which is why we take this event particularly seriously and continue to push for inwards investment in our country’s oil and gas industry.
On the team of exhibitors here, we have the Ministry of Energy, which is responsible for energy policy formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation as well as supervision and coordination of activities of energy sector agencies. We also have the Petroleum Commission, which is the regulator of Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry, as well as the National Petroleum Authority, whose mandate is to regulate the petroleum downstream industry in Ghana.
The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation is another exhibitor, with the mandate to undertake exploration, development, production, and disposal of petroleum, whilst the Ghana Gas Company is the nation’s premier mid-stream gas business company that owns and operates infrastructure required to perform the role of gas transmission utility..
Kosmos Energy is a leading deepwater exploration and production focused on meeting the world’s growing demand for energy and is also on the team of exhibitors, whilst Tullow Ghana, a subsidiary of Tullow Oil, is an independent oil and gas company with a focus in Africa.
Finally, we have the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, whose mandate is to promote Ghana as an investment hub, facilitate and implement an attractive investment framework and advocate for an enabling investment environment.
Ghana’s delegation includes astute businessmen and women who are willing to discuss and do business with their counterparts from different parts of the world in order to expand business activities, trade, and investments between Ghana and other countries. International businesses are therefore being encouraged to engage the Ghanaian businesses for partnership opportunities in Ghana and beyond.
Also, permit me to use this opportunity to invite you to the West Africa Oil and Gas Forum on Wednesday at the NRG Center, Level 2, Room 300 from 2 – 5 pm.
Thank you for being part of this ceremony.
I wish you a fruitful conference and look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.