Aker Energy oil deal: IMANI lacks understanding of petroleum economics - Amewu

According to him, IMANI misled Ghanaians with their narrative of the nature of the contract between Ghana and Aker Energy and the government of Ghana

He said "The ministry of energy has called this press conference to set the record straight particularly to the extent that IMANI put out a total fabricated false information to educate the good people of this country.... IMANI portrayed to Ghanaians that Ghana is losing an amount of 30 billion dollars. This is an untrue story."

Vice President IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil said Aker Energy did not have any formal agreement with the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) before it explored oil in some areas outside the blocks it inherited from original owners Hess Energy.

He said Aker discovered the oil after its exploration licence had expired in 2014 and failed to go through the right processes.

But the Energy Minister addressing the press described the claims by IMANI as total falsehoods adding that Fueltrade's participating interest was set at 2% for which it paid about USD$9 million with a performance guarantee of USD$2 million.

"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 an appraisal to HESS," the Minister noted.

He also questioned IMANI's valuation of the field at $30 billion by multiplying the assumed price of $65 per barrel by 450 million barrels.

 "This exposes the weaknesses in IMANI’s analyses as well as its poor understanding of petroleum economics. The 450 million barrels of oil equivalent are gross contingent resources, which are the potential resource available all of which cannot be recovered under current technology. IMANI wants us to believe that all the 450million barrels of oil equivalent will be produced but fails to explain how that can be.

"In Ghana, our average crude oil recovery rate is 25%. At this rate, the field value will be estimated at $7.3 billion assuming a price of $65 per barrel. We are working with Aker Energy to enhance oil recovery mechanism to achieve a recovery rate of 40%, which will be the highest in Ghana’s oil and gas history and which occurrence will appreciate the value to $11.7 billion. This will be a significant gain for both Ghana and the partners," he added.