BY : DARI KWABENA MATHEW (+233555395925)
The Ministry of Energy has said that former President John Dramani Mahama’s record in the petroleum sector is shameful.
The Ministry said Mr Mahama signed eleven petroleum agreements when he was in office but none of them is producing oil as of today.
Out of the eleven contracts, four of them have been terminated, the Ministry added.
“Ghanaians are kindly reminded that petroleum agreements in respect of Ghana’s three producing oil and gas fields were all signed under President Kufuor. All these three producing fields were impliedly inherited by the Mills-Mahama administration.
“On the other hand, under the Mahama presidency, at least 11 petroleum agreements were signed. Of these 11, none is producing oil as of today.
“This is a shameful record of John Mahama which he and his followers cannot justify under any circumstance. Indeed, in an attempt to revive petroleum activities, the Ministry of Energy has terminated four of such John Mahama era petroleum agreements and made them available to prospective investors,” a statement issued by the Ministry said.
The Ministry further noted that Ghana has seen an unprecedented oil wells success rate from all explorations drilled from 2017 to date.
Mr Mahama had said that the past seven years under the Akufo-Addo administration have gone waste, especially in the energy sector.
Mr Mahama indicated that he left behind two new oil fields, the Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme (TEN) and Sankofa fields.
But, he said, no additional upstream production activities have been undertaken in the last seven years.
In a tweet, the 2020 presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said “Wasted years! We bequeathed to the Akufo-Addo gov’t two new oil fields, TEN and Sankofa. Greed and ineptitude as against national interest mean a sad reality of no additional production activity in our upstream oil sector in the last 7 years.”
But in a statement responding to him, the Energy Ministry said “For the record, under Akufo-Addo’s presidency, Ghana has seen an unprecedented oil wells success rate from all exploration drilled from 2017 to date.
“Out of seven exploration wells drilled during the period, six of them were successful in seven discoveries.”
