Financial analyst, Sydney Casely Hayford has rubbished IMANI Africa’s fears over potential $30 billion losses to the state in Aker Energy’s oil dealings in Ghana.
He said on The Big Issue that the statement IMANI put out on the matter was “very alarmist.”
“I think that the IMANI press briefing has created the impression that there is the doomsday; that if on a critical day the Minister doesn’t respond to Aker then Aker will take all the oil from the field. That is totally impossible.”
“This cataclysmic event which is supposed to take place because the Minister has lapsed and has not given a response is not valid. It is totally invalid as far as the whole process is concerned.”
Though the company says initial works done show that its Pecan4A well in the block could be holding some 450 to 550 million barrels of oil, Mr. Casely-Hayford explained that such estimate will never come to frution.
He expects only 25 percent of that to be realised; about half of which will be for the state.
This, in his estimation, will translate to only about $7 billion.
“When you look at it, the $30 billion loss IMANI has calculated, I disagree. From my knowledge of how the industry works, you will never ever achieve that,” Mr. Casely-Hayford remarked.
Background
Aker Energy announced the discovery of oil in the Pecan South-1A well in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points (DWT/CTP) block offshore Ghana.
Aker Energy is the operator of the field with a 50 per cent stake for which it recently submitted a U$4.4 billion plan for development to the government for approval.
But IMANI said there were delays in addressing the Plan of Development (PoD) proposal to the government and the think tank feared that the failure of the Energy Ministry to respond to the proposal in 30 days as stipulated by law would cause Ghana to lose its rights.
It said a potential $30 billion revenue from the new oil wells was at stake.
But the government said IMANI’s claims were false with the Energy Minister, Peter Amewu criticising IMANI for misinforming Ghanaians on the potential loss of $30 billion.
IMANI had said the government waited till Thursday, April 25 to respond to the proposal, a day after it had first raised the alarm.
Responding to the assertion that the Ministry had, until Thursday, failed to respond to the PoD, the Minister said the proposal which was submitted on March 28 was not even accepted.
Also on The Big Issue, Deputy Minister of Information, Pius Hadzide said: “the matter is settled and the government says that [despite] the concerns that you may have with the PoD as submitted by Aker, we are not accepting it [Aker the propsal] in that manner so [they should] make some amendments.”
A 45-day ultimatum had been given for a new proposal from Aker with new benchmarks for the company to satisfy.
Source: citinewsroom.com