Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah has rejected demands by the opposition New Patriotic Party for a review of the petroleum deal with Italian firm, ENI.
ENI and its partners have signed an agreement with government for the exploitation of the Offshore Cape Three Point Block.
The NPP has tasked the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to prevail upon ENI and government to review the agreement because of unfavorable terms.
“The Government of Ghana’s provision of financial terms to ENI and its partners of 20% return on investment, instead of the normal 12.5%, is an unusually high rate for commercial transactions of this nature, especially as GNPC assumes all the risk in the project.
“The negotiated gas price of $9.8/MMBtu for gas from the Sankofa fields is too high by world standards, of between $5-7/MMBtu. It is even higher than the price of gas sold to Ghana from Nigeria, which stands at $8.3/MMBtu, delivered at Takoradi. It is even more expensive than our own Atuabo Gas price of $8.8/MMBtu delivered at Takoradi. At the negotiated gas price of $9.8/MMBtu, it puts to great risk Ghana’s potential of becoming the Petrochemical hub of the region to Nigeria, due to that country’s lower gas prices,” the opposition party said in a statement.
Reacting to the concerns of the opposition party, Mr Boah told Starr News the deal is in the best interest of Ghana.
“…Has somebody sat down and calculated the benefit of this project which is easily going to give us more power than the power we have right now?
“We are coming up with a very comprehensive analysis to allow the people of Ghana understand what our position is…I think that this project no matter how you look at it, is good for the people of Ghana,” he said.
