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17.05.2016 Feature Article

Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana Press Conference Workshop

Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana Press Conference Workshop
17.05.2016 LISTEN

FAIR-TRADE OIL SHARE – GHANA CAMPAIGN

PRESS CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP: ADDRESS BY THE CHIEF IMAM OF TEMA

Date: 28th April, 2016 Venue: TDC Conference Centre

OPENING/WELCOME ADDRESS
On behalf of the Fair-trade Oil-Share Ghana Campaign Team and our supporters all over the world I welcome you to this eventful and very important national discourse.

On 20th February, 2016, I led a delegation of representatives of Fair Trade Oil Share Ghana Team in Ghana to Aqua Safari Resort at Ada to meet the Select Committee on Mines and Energy, top officials of the Ministry of Petroleum led by the Deputy Minister and officials of the Petroleum Commission to discuss the type of fiscal regime or contract Ghana should adopt to maximise the most benefits from the oil and gas resources Allah has given us.

Ladies and gentlemen, it would interest you to know that this was the third time we have to meet on this very important National issue. At the meeting we were accused of being the cause of the delay and held up of the Bill in Parliament for almost 2 years.

We have even before production began at Jubilee Fields, persistently argued that Ghana should adopt Production Sharing Agreement which PNDC Laws 64 and 84 support to enable Ghana derives the maximum benefits.

Before production began at Jubilee Fields, the Senior Research officer of GIGS has authored a book, Ghana's Oil and Gas Discoveries: Towards Full Maximum Benefits to back and support our position.

Copies of the book were donated to Parliament through the Clerk of Parliament almost 3 years ago to be distributed to the whole House as educational material so that the whole House can appreciate the advantages of the Production Sharing Agreement over the current prevailing Hybrid System –The Modern Concession but leadership of Parliament prevented the distribution with the excuse that contents of the book should not be known to all members of the House. This is a clear indication that Leadership in Parliament were up to some mischief and that Parliament would not be in position to pass a good law to regulate the emerging upstream oil industry.

On 8th March, 2016, Graphic Business, published an article under the headline "Haggle Over Type of Oil Contracts Delays E&P Bill"

In this article the Deputy Minister, firstly accused us of alleging corruption. He went on to averr that.

  1. "The delay has forced the government to continue to rely on the existing E&P Law 1984 (PNDCL 84) which has been criticized as outmoded and therefore inimical to the budding petroleum sector"
  2. ‘’The concessionary system is mostly used by countries still struggling to develop their petroleum sector, given its investor friendly nature’’.
  3. "The PSA, on the other hand are fancied by developed Oil economies, whose petroleum sector are versatile and could boast of more than five projects at a time".
  4. While admitting that PSA's guaranteed higher returns (more than 50 % of total production revenue to the host country) the Deputy Minister said ‘’the infant nature of Ghana's oil industry made it unwise for the country to abandon the hybrid system for Production Sharing’’ even though he is aware it would make Ghana derive less than 25% of total production revenue.
  5. "People who can opt for pure PSAs have more than one producing fields, because they can leverage those one to attract investment."

Ladies and gentlemen the above reasons given by the Deputy Minister to support the adoption of the Ghana Hybrid system are complete technical and professionally false statements and amount to public deceit to the highest order. There is no single iota of truth in all that he said.

My Co-Chairman Togbe on behalf of the Fair-Trade Oil Share-Ghana Campaign would answer and disprove all these untruth and falsities we are being made to believe in the Press Statement after my welcome address and to complement the comprehensive response by the Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana Campaign Team.

Just before Parliament went on break an attempt was made to rush the Bill through Parliament without debate, even though the Fair-Trade Oil Share-Ghana Campaign Team has written to the Speaker on 8th March 2016 to stay the Bill and to initiate the Speaker's Forum as a final arbiter to debate and discuss this very important national issue, because we have lost confidence in Parliament handling this issue alone.

Meanwhile, the Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana Campaign Team has launched a Petition/Campaign worldwide to collect signatures and comments in support of Production Sharing Agreement. We have submitted to the Speaker on 21st March, 2016 the first summary of the Petition/Campaign Report. We hope and pray the Speaker would be humble enough to consider the contents of the report and do what is right to save this country Ghana from the pit we are falling into.

It has therefore become necessary for me as the Leader of Fair-Trade Oil Share-Ghana Campaign team in Ghana to initiate this programme and to invite you distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen to this press conference/workshop to tell you our side of the story, because we have realized the Speaker of Parliament and the Chairman of the Select Committee on Mines and Energy have failed to heed our call to stay the Bill and initiate the Speaker’s Forum to debate and build a National consensus on this very important Bill which passage would negatively affect the present as well as future generations yet unborn.

The Prophet (Salallahu ‘Alayhi Wa Sallam) said:

Each of you is a shepherd, and each one is responsible for his flock: The leader is a shepherd of this nation and accountable for them; the man is a shepherd of the family of his house and accountable to them; the servant is responsible for the wealth of his master and accountable for it; and the woman is a shepherd for the home of her husband and accountable for it.

[Musnad Ahmad and a similar narration is related in Bukhari]

Delivered by: Imam Adam Abubakar –Tema Metropolitan Chief Imam

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