The Minority in Parliament has criticised the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for allegedly claiming credit for recent oil discoveries.
According to the minority, the new Oil discoveries happened under the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration, not Mahama.
He asserted that the Mahama gov’t had nothing to do with the drilling of the Akoma and Eban exploration wells, as well as the approval of the appraisal programme of the two discoveries.
Speaking at a press conference on behalf of the Minority caucus, Collins Adomako-Mensah stated, “ENI, as required by the CTP Block 4 Petroleum Agreement, formerly issued two separate notices of discovery to the then Ministry of Energy, the Petroleum Commission and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. These discoveries were also announced or published by sections of the Ghanaian media”
“The Minority wonders how the Mahama administration, which had nothing to do with the drilling of the Akoma and Eban exploration wells as well as approval of the appraisal programme of the two discoveries, will all of a sudden claim that the results of an Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration-approved appraisal programme that are a result of commerciality are a credit to it.”
In Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry, it is the contract or operator that has a duty of informing the state of the outcome of any approved appraisal programme. That is what ENI did recently.”
“The Mahama administration, for self-serving purposes, has sought to covet this normal reporting to a funfair whose cause is attributable to it, even though it is barely seven months in office,” he added.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson and Head of Communications at the Ministry of Energy, Richmond Rockson, has fired shots at the minority in parliament for seeking to mislead the public on oil discoveries.
According to Richmond Rockson, the information put out by the ministry was to inform the Ghanaian people about the declaration of commerciality.
Speaking on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News on Monday, July 7, he stated, “It’s rather unfortunate that the MP and former Deputy Energy Minister Hon. Collins seeks to mislead the public”.
“In the first place, the statement that the Ministry put out was just to inform the people of Ghana about the declaration of commerciality.
“Even though this project is a project that commenced years ago under His Excellency President John Mahama, nobody even indicated that. It was basically to inform the people of Ghana on what has happened”, he added.
