Russian Companies To Participate In Ghana’s Energy Sector

On June 22, Hon. (Mr.) Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Minister of Energy and Petroleum, and Mr. Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, held an official working meeting on possible ways for boosting and strengthening cooperation in the energy sector in the Republic of Ghana.

During the meeting, both sides approved the intention to facilitate Russian companies participate in oil and gas upstream exploration and power generation building projects as well as in energy infrastructure in the Republic of Ghana.

The parties further discussed Rosneft and Gazprom, both Russian companies, the level of involvement in the industry. In an emailed statement, Russian company Lukoil's joining the Deepwater Tano offshore project was adopted by Government of Ghana in May, 2015.

Speaking later in an interview, Energy Minister Armah-Kofi Buah explained that “power supply, energy management and industrial development are inter-connected and thus remain key factors of the economy. Our task is to create more job opportunities as well as to improve standard of living for the population and this we can when we have sustainable and sufficient energy supply for domestic consumption and most probably for export to countries in the sub-region of west Africa.”

The Minister said the Government of Ghana was determined to address the challenges posed by shortage of energy supply and its impact on the economy, and added that the Government’s decision to deregulate the petroleum sector was to allow petroleum importers and marketers to reduce their price as well as pull in more private players into the sector.

“That’s why we came to hold talks in order to consolidate the existing agreements with Russian authorities,” he explained and added that Russian companies’ experiences were highly valued and needed in Ghana.

Hon. Buah, however, informed that Russia��s Lukoil, one of the world's biggest integrated companies for production of crude oil and gas, and refinery into petroleum products and petrochemicals, has already operated for a number years in Ghana, but it now became necessary to invite Rosneft and Gazprom to join in optimizing overall production in the energy industry. Rosneft and Gazprom are reputable leaders of Russia’s petroleum industry.

Hon. Buah re-assured state support for Russian companies that would be engaged in the energy sector in the country. He said assertively that investment guarantees were also provided for foreign investing companies in the energy industry.

Dr. Kodzo K. Alabo, Ghana’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Russian Federation & Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Mr. Alexander Kofi-Mensah Mould, Chief Executive Officer, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) also participated in the discussion.

After the meeting, Ambassador Alabo described the deliberation with the Russian officials as “very fruitful and successful” but it needed an intensive and consistent follow-up especially working on the various proposals put forward by the meeting and with new emerging tasks relating to the energy project for the benefit of the people and the Government of Ghana.

According to the Russia’s Ministry of Energy press release, the meeting was held within the framework of the Joint Russia-Ghana Economic and Scientific-Technical Commission.

The Joint Russia-Ghana Economic and Scientific-Technical Commission, which is Co-Chaired by Mr. Kwesi Kwartey, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, and Mr. Valeriy Anatolevich Pak, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, held its first joint meeting in October 2014 and planned to hold the next meeting in 2016.

Reference: Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation is a state executive authority, responsible for the development and implementation of national policy as well as legal regulation in the sphere of fuel and electricity complex, including electricity, oil production, oil refining, petrochemicals, gas and refined products pipelines, realization of renewable energy programmes, development of hydrocarbon deposits on the basis of production sharing agreements. Ministry of Energy is also responsible for providing state services and managing state property in the sphere of production and usage of energy resources.