GHANA will retain 38 per cent of revenue from the country’s oil and gas resources, an advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Joe Amoako-Tuffuor, has announced.
He said the expected revenue would accrue from direct and indirect sources such as royalties, corporate income tax, dividends, additional income tax, surface rental and carried interest.
What is yet to be determined is whether the revenue should be paid in cash or in kind.
Dr Amoako-Tuffuor said this in a paper he delivered on the topic, “Use and Management of Oil and Gas Revenues”, at a public forum on petroleum revenue management in Ho on Wednesday.
He said revenue inflow had been categorised into two — big spending era and low spending — adding that the big spending era spanned 2011-2018, while the low spending era was expected from 2018 and beyond.
He said it was recommended that priority spending areas should focus on investment in basic elements of a good society such as public safety, law and order institutions, culture, human capital development and processes and institutions of economic management.
In a presentation on, “Gas and Oil Industry”, a geophysicist at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr Ben Asante, said the oil industry might last in Ghana for 15-20 years if it relied only on the Jubilee well.
He, however, said the time frame could be extended with the incorporation of three other major discoveries at Odum, Sankofa and Tweneboa since 2001.
He said the first phase of production of oil from the Jubilee field would start from the fourth quarter of this year, with 120,000 barrels expected to be drilled per day, in addition to 120 millimetres of standard cubic feet (MMSCF) of gas per day.
Mr Asante said the second phase was expected from 2013, with additional infrastructure for the production of 240,000 barrels per day, with a gas component of 240 MMSCF/day.
In an address, the Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Amenowode, said the oil and gas industry had opened an opportunity for Ghanaians in the private sector to carve a niche and take control of the industry.
He said the oil industry might not by itself add much to the development of the country if the revenue generated was not properly managed to propel efforts at the sustainable socio-economic growth of the country.
The regional minister said over-dependence on the oil industry, to the neglect of existing sectors of the economy which had hitherto sustained the nation, would be suicidal.
“We need to strengthen our traditional revenue sectors/sources and ensure that revenue that will accrue from the oil industry is complementary to existing revenue sources to accelerate our efforts at national growth,” he said.
Mr Amenowode said expectations were very high following the discovery of oil in the country, adding that it had generated mixed feelings among the people seeking to know what the situation would be like, especially when nations like Nigeria had experienced several negative social and economic challenges in connection with oil exploration.
He, however, said it was pertinent to develop and strengthen all the forward, backward and horizontal industrial linkages in the oil industry in order to have an all-round growth of the economy.
Participants in the consultative forum expressed the strong desire for substantial allocation to a strong defence and security network for investment in the oil fields and fire safety to cope with the accelerated development expected in all spheres of national endeavour.
They also suggested that provision should be made to cater for the large-scale migration that was expected to be generated that might dismember relationships.
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