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Don't steal credit for Cape 3 Point project - Minority tells Nana Addo
The NDC argues that it doesn’t take six months for the NPP government to achieve the Cape Three Points in the Western Region
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The minority insists that the project was a legacy of the NDC government under the leadership of former President John Mahama.
The NDC MPs argued that it doesn’t take six months for the NPP government to achieve the Cape Three Points in the Western Region.
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The Minority Leader, addressing the press on Wednesday, July 5, Haruna Iddrisu said this important milestone in the sector came as a result of the robust regulatory regime in the oil and gas sector under the previous administration.
"As our dear country prepares to celebrate the first oil ceremony led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we the NDC minority in Parliament join all Ghanaians to celebrate this milestone.
"We established strong institutions and promoted good governance to encourage investments. It is therefore not surprising that, the global index assessing 81 countries in oversight has established that Ghana’s oil and gas sector is the best governed in Sub-Saharan Africa," he said.
Below is the Minority statement on Cape Three Point project
OFF CAPE THREE POINTS FIRST OIL COMMISSIONING – NDC’S VISION AND HARDWORK HAS PAID OFF
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On Thursday 6th July, 2017, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to turn the valve to mark the commencement of commercial exploitation of oil Off Cape Three Points. It must be noted that this project is a legacy of the NDC Government under the visionary leadership of President John Mahama as it doesn’t take six months to achieve this feat.
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As our dear country prepares to celebrate the first oil ceremony led by H.E President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we the NDC minority in Parliament join all Ghanaians to celebrate this milestone.
However, it ought to be emphasized that Ghana did not get here by accident, the NDC Government understood within the early stages of commercial oil production in 2011, the importance of a robust regulatory regime in the oil and gas sector. We established strong institutions and promoted good governance to encourage investments. It is therefore not surprising that, the global index assessing 81 countries in oversight has established that Ghana’s oil and gas sector is the best governed in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Our record in passing the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011 to ensure transparency in revenue management with the oversight responsibility by the citizenry through the Public Interest Accountability Committee (PIAC) has earned Ghana an enviable reputation.
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Our record in establishing the Petroleum Commission as the independent upstream regulator through the Petroleum Commission Act 821 was critical to regulate and manage the utilization of petroleum resources. Since its establishment, the commission has saved our country millions of dollars.
Our record with the support of Parliament in passing the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act 2016 (Act 919) has marked a significant watershed for the sector.
Also, the Petroleum (Local Content and Participation) law LI 2204 with the objectives of enabling Ghanaians to benefit from the upstream petroleum business and to expand in-country value creation; are all key examples of the work we did to get us here. We focused on monetizing our gas resources because we understood that gas would serve as a cheaper source of fuel for the power sector. It was for this reason that the NDC Government worked tirelessly to establish the Western Corridor Gas Infrastructure Project and through that, the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) that supervised the construction of the Atuabo Gas Plant.
Ladies and Gentlemen:You may recall how the NPP then in opposition opposed the $1 billion CDB facility that was used for the construction of this plant.
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What we will be celebrating later this week, began when the NDC came into office in 2009. The NDC Government under the Mills/Mahama leadership approved the Farm-in of ENI Ghana as field operator of the OCTP licensed in September 2009. This is how a major oil producer, ENI, came to Ghana to join VITOL.
This followed negotiations by the NDC government and GNPC on behalf of the state for additional 5% (making a total of 20%) working interest from 15% in original agreement negotiated in 2006. So NPP had negotiated for 15% share, we came in and increased it to 20%.
Having achieved all these, we proceeded with the following:
1. Oil declaration of commercial quantities –June 24th 2013
2. July 13th 2013, first submission of phase one oil Plan of Development (POD)
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3. December 31st 2014-partners under the leadership of Ministry of Energy and Finance, initiated OCTP Heads of agreement, Gas sales agreement, Terms Sheet, security package, supplementary and fiscal support agreement. It must be noted that these were not easy agreements, it took hard work and dedication by the Ghanaian team under the leadership of H.E. John Dramani Mahama.
4. June 17th 2015, GOG, GNPC and the contractors signed the gas sales agreement after tireless negotiation.
Ladies and Gentlemen:In the context of Ghana’s GDP and current economic phase, the OCTP gas project (Sankofa gas project) is the largest domestic gas contract ever negotiated. It represents Ghana’s first non-associated gas-to power project.
The gas sales project is expected to secure the reliable supply of feed stock gas for power generation in Ghana-supplying gas to power over 1000MW.
Projected daily gas supply from the Sankofa-Gye Nyame field is estimated to be about 180MMSCF for over 13 years.
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The NDC government despite the global downturn was able to get two global players in the industry, ENI and VITOL to finance this multi-billion dollar project, the NDC was also able to bring in the World Bank Group, providing about half a billion US dollars of partial risk guarantee (PRG), the largest ever world Bank guarantee to make this project work. In addition, to this, the world Bank is providing US$300 million of additional support as credit enhancement for the new power plants to off-take the gas from the field.
In terms of the benefits, this project is the largest ever Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In fact, it is the largest single gas-to-power project in Sub-Saharan Africa in recent years.
Ladies and Gentlemen, you would have thought that, the NPP then in opposition would have supported this laudable project, but unfortunately, that is not exactly what happened, they took every opportunity to discredit this very important project.
For instance, on the eve of the visit of the former Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, on Tuesday February 2nd 2016, this was the caption of the NPP press statement led by their Director of communication, Nana Akomea: “Review Ghana’s bad gas deal with ENI, NPP to Prime Minister.” Among several issues raised, they condemned the financial terms especially the gas price, yet in power, their own Finance Minister confirmed at his vetting that the price was only tentative to be determined after all the contracts have been awarded and savings determined.
We want to take this opportunity to congratulate all the players especially H.E. John Dramani Mahama, whose tireless leadership and bold vision opened the doors for the necessary and giant steps that made the project possible. This includes teams from Ministries of Finance, Energy, Attorney General, the P.C, GNPC and partners from ENI and VITOL for this great milestone.
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Ladies and gentlemen, we still have a lot of work ahead on this project. We begin oil production but the gas starts early next year.
The NDC government has laid a solid foundation for this project. We worked hard to monetise the gas, completed the western corridor Gas infrastructure project, established the GNGC and completed the Gas plant, with a 60Km offshore pipeline and 150 mmscf gas processing plant at Atuabo.
However, with additional volumes of gas expected from ENI and in the future from HESS, there is the urgent need to expand the plant and complete the WAPCO reverse flow of gas from Aboadze to Tema for the ENI Gas to get to the Eastern power plants in the Tema enclave.
The NDC Government has ushered Ghana into the gas era, we expect this government to go to work and complete these critical outstanding projects.
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