Stop harassing investors in the oil industry…Minority charges gov`t

The Minority in Parliament have observed that the intimidation by the security agencies of Ghanaian professionals who helped in the discovery of oil has the tendency of driving away potential investors into the oil industry.

According to them, instead of hailing the professionals as heroes, the government has resorted to treating them as villains; a situation that has the tendency of sending wrong signals to investors about an unsecured investment climate in the country.

Addressing a group of journalists in Parliament yesterday, deputy minority ranking member on Energy, Dr. Kwame Ampofo Twumasi, stated that the minority was worried about the policy decisions which the government was using in handling issues in the oil sector.

Dr. Twumasi noted that the manner in which former President Kufuor handled the oil sector made it an attractive investment destination for oil exploration, and its related downstream activities but the sudden turn of events in the oil industry is denting the image of the country, adding “investors have expressed serious concerns on how Ghanaians are being treated”.

The minority further accused the GNPC of lack of transparency in its operations, underscoring a situation where the company was compelling KOSMOS energy to sell its stake to companies of its choice, as against companies that are known globally to have the clout that would make Ghana a top player in the industry.

“We wish to state that there is a total lack of transparency in the transactions being orchestrated by GNPC, and we are by this statement serving notice that GNPC would be required to appraise the nation fully through the august House of Parliament, of these matters”, noted Dr. Twumasi, as he gazed his eyes into the faces of the journalists to register the minority's protest against the operations of GNPC.

Highlighting on ongoing activities in the oil industry, Dr. Twumasi, a former deputy Minister of Energy in the NPP administration said a number of oil companies that have no track record, and he alleged were quickly formed by some leading members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have been engaged in the supply of both crude and refined petroleum products into the country.

He mentioned that Manitwoc, Scan Oil, Forrestor, Crest Grade International, Kempac, PetroGhana, Cush Oil, Smk Energy, Mafci and Joint Development among many others as some of the companies they believe have been engaged by government in the supply chain of petroleum products to the country.

“We have reason to believe that shady underhand dealings are going on with companies that have not track record globally or even on the continent, in dealing with the supply of petroleum products. We are reliably informed that at least one of the companies listed has been blacklisted in one country”.

He was optimistic that there is evidence to suggest that some of these entities are companies which have been hurriedly formed by leading members of the NDC, in an attempt to cash in on the importation of petroleum products, while the good people of Ghana continue to suffer high prices and little supply of petroleum products. The minority attributed the recent shortage and increase in fuel prices to the under dealings in the oil sector.

The minority, perturbed about the sudden twist of events in the oil industry strongly protested against the 5% increase in the price of petroleum products recently announced by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).

“The severe hardships faced by Ghanaians as a result of the increase are well known to all of us. But in a rather sadistic manner and as if these sufferings were not enough, just last Saturday, the NPA announced another increase of 5% for the same petroleum products, thus bringing the total net increase of petroleum prices by a colossal 43.5% over what the NDC government inherited from the NPP”, noted Dr. Twumasi.

The minority challenged the basis for which the petroleum products were increased and, therefore, criticized the NDC for going behind its manifesto and campaign promises made during the electioneering campaign time.

“By all indications, the Mills government is leading us to a level of petroleum prices that we cannot afford if the prices of crude oil globally continues to rise and the campaign promise of the drastic reduction would never be delivered”, Dr. Twumasi averred.

He accused the NDC for doing little to save the economy from collapse, adding “the state of the economy as we are seeing now is clearly a replay of what pertained before 2001; of high interest rates hovering around 42%, persistent fuel scarcities and unstable cedi value, among many others”.

The minority called on President Mills to immediately put an end to ongoing under dealings in the oil industry that are destroying the favourable investment climate in the country, and also to immediately call for investigations into the operations of the GNPC, particularly, its dealings with Anandarko's operations in Sierra Leone.

It also called on the President to order investigations into the newly set up companies engaged in the supply chain of petroleum products to the country and also live by campaign promise of reducing oil prices drastically.