Gov't failed to protect Ghana's interest in Aker deal
Adnan Adams Mohammed
Energy expert has severed the President Akuffo Addo
administration for failing to protect the interest of Ghana in the deal it signed
with Aker Energy.
Former Boss of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC),
Alex Mould reiterated his stands on the Aker deal which started under his
supervision that, the NPP led government did not serve the interest of
Ghanaians for rejecting an additional 10 percent carried and participation that
GNPC negotiated for and budgeted to pay. The additional 10% would have
increased Ghana's interest in the biggest oilfind block in the country.
When asked by host on TV3 Hot Issues program last week on
whether the government failed to protect the interest of Ghanaians in the Aker
deal? The energy and financial expert responded yes.
"With regards to this particular issue, yes."
He explained that, “when I was at GNPC, we signed an agreement
with Hess (initial owners of the block) and that agreement was very clear. It
says, GNPC will pay for 10% of shares once ITLOS case was over (which started
in 2014 and ended in 2017). If it ended in 2016, I would have paid for the 10%
but it didn't end under my watch.
"It (ITLOS case) ended in 2017 under NPP who was supposed
to pay for the 10% but never paid for the 10%. And that 10% is equivalent to
US$2-3 billion now. We were going to pay US$40 million.
"So my question is, why did we (government of Ghana) not pay
for the 10%?"
He noted that this still bevels his imagination. "And that
is what I think is wrong and I believe it is 'state capture' because anybody
who is truly a Ghanaian will not want
the 10% that is due the country to be given to a foreigner or somebody in the
private sector. It is stealing assets from the state and giving it to the
private sector. I believe that is wrong."
Already, other policy think-tanks like IMANI Africa, ACEP and
the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) Caucus in Parliament had
contested the Aker Energy Petroleum Agreement when it was registered in the
Petroleum Block register.
They noted that, the Aker petroleum agreement will not inure to
the benefit of Ghanaians and the earlier it is withdrawn and reviewed the better.
Yet, nothing new has come out of it so far.
According to them, the stake of the country in the original
agreement which was brokered by the previous government headed by Mr. John
Dramani Mahama, has been slashed down by 25% in favour of Aker Energy, the new
owner of the oil block.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu in a press conference in
Parliament, in May 2019 said, the action by the Akufo-Addo-led government
clearly demonstrates that they have ceded Ghana’s petroleum interests to
foreign hands.
“Instead of protecting the public purse and ensure that the
citizenry benefits from the country’s petroleum resources, the current
government has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that it is more concerned
in protecting foreign interest to the detriment of the collective national
interest”, he noted.
In a separate interview with Economy Times, Mr. Alex Mould
further showed signs of disappointment. He could not understand why GNPC would
write to Hess informing them that it would not exercise the option to purchase
the 10% interest in the Block due to lack of funds when GNPC had over
US$150million in cash on their balance sheets as of the end of 2016, he said
Mr. Mould opined that the decision not to exercise the option
of purchasing the 10% interest could never have been in the best interest of
the country and therefore amounted to causing financial loss to the state.
“Considering what GoG stood to gain from the 10% interest, one
cannot help but wonder why all options and possibilities were not exhausted
before getting to this point. For example, was there any economic analysis done
by GNPC to validate why the 10% interest should not be taken up? Was Approval
sought from Minister who had given GNPC the original approval to pay for the
10% Interest in the Block? If so, did Minister get his approval from Cabinet?
Was the Minister of Finance aware that GNPC had turned down an option to
acquire 10% of the Block? Because if the issue alone was that GNPC did not have
the funds then MoF could have been asked to fund on behalf of GoG. Lastly was
Parliament informed that GNPC would not take up the option?? If the answer is
no to any of these questions then the letter that was sent to Hess/Aker was
illegal as it did not have the authority to say that GoG was no longer
exercising the option to purchase the 10% Interest in the Block.”
Background
In 2014 when Lukoil bought interest in Hess Block (DWT/CPT)
Government negotiated and agreed with Hess on granting GoG an option to acquire
10% of the Block .
The Minister approved the Lukoil farm-in into the DWT/CTP Block
Operated by Hess in 2014 on two main conditions:
That they needed to abide by new law that required a local
partner should take up a minimum of 5% ; this was despite the fact that Hess
themselves were grandfathered just as Tullow, Kosmos and Eni were
The second condition was that government would increase its
Interest from the original 10% Carried to 20% by taking an option to acquire a
10% paid Interest.
GNPC was designated as the government entity to handle
acquisition and formed a subsidiary called EXPLORCO to hold GoG’s additional
interest, with the aim of maximizing Ghana’s revenue from the find.
In 2017, government through GNPC however wrote to Hess that it
was no longer interested in purchasing the 10% paid interest due to lack of
funds.
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