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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Ghana news: Gas industry needs institutional reforms

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Stakeholders in the country’s gas sub-sector have called for the setting up of a stakeholders’ representation and a steering committee to shape best practice and development of the sector.

They also called for institutional reforms in the exercise of responsibilities and duties within the industry in order to curtail any overlaps in role play.

“The most important recommendations bordered on institutional reforms. From a stakeholders’ point of view, there have been certain overlaps in the industry which is quite typical of a young industry. There have been issues over clarity on who does what,” the Executive Director of The Gas Consortium, Mr Senam Gbeho, told the Daily Graphic.

This was shortly after Messrs Gbeho and his co-Executive Director of the Consortium, Amartey Nuno-Ameteifio, had presented a report on the Ghana Gas Forum of last year to the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, in his office in Accra.

Some recommendations

The 82-page report covered activities, discussions and recommendations of the Ghana Gas Forum, a platform for frank discussion and sharing of ideas on the gas sub-sector of the oil and gas industry. 

Mr Gbeho said the report also contained recommendations about how the country’s gas development and masterplan, which received Cabinet approval recently, should be aligned to the broader development goals of the country. 

“If anything, gas is meant to accelerate plans that are already there. So they have to be aligned more closely and should define what we want with the gas industry,” Mr Gbeho cited from the recommendations of the report.

The Gas Consortium is a non-profit organisation that organises thought-leadership events in the gas industry, knowledge integration and capacity building.

Energy minister responds

For his part, Mr Buah said Cabinet approval for the Gas Masterplan was very important, since the plan looked at the key demands and supply patterns, the infrastructure and the institutional reforms required to build a strong gas sector. 

“This is especially so because in the coming years, Ghana will produce its own indigenous gas and should have the capacity to handle all issues relating to the gas sector,” Mr Buah said.

He commended The Gas Consortium for initiating the Ghana Gas Forum, particularly because the gas sector was very new and there was a lot of work to be done. “I am very happy that you’ve documented a lot of those discussions. It will help the ministry and the agencies that are at the forefront of gas development in the country.”

The energy and petroleum minister also pledged his ministry’s continued support for the gas forum and said the ministry would put the report to very good use.

Messrs Gbeho and Nuno-Ameteifio, during their presentations, also thanked the minister for his personal support for the forum since its inception in 2012 and informed him of the Ministers’ Forum, which would be an added feature in next year’s forum to exchange notes with other countries in similar situations. 

The Ghana Gas Forum

The objective of the forum is to ensure frank conversations around the gas resources among stakeholders. 

The Gas Consortium started the forum in recognition of the enormous work ahead and thought that as a non-profit body, they could create a window and  platform for all stakeholders to understand the developments in the industry.

 


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