By Solace AMANKWA
Government has constituted a high level committee of security and legal experts to draft a policy document, aimed at safeguarding operations in the oil and gas sector.
The policy will protect the petroleum industry against acts of terrorism, sabotage, piracy and vandalism.
This would create a safe, secure and enabling environment to facilitate the exploration, exploitation and distribution of oil and gas.
Besides, it would prevent the diversion and stealing of petroleum products, and further prevent other users of the sea from interfering with operations.
According to the Minister of Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, government is putting up measures to give a timely response to emergencies in the oil and gas sector.
He said efforts should be made to ensure that transparency goes beyond the monitoring of the flow of oil revenues to all contracts signed between the extractive companies and the government.
Ghana signed up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) mechanism in 2003 to enhance improved governance in the mining sector through full publication and verification of company payments and government revenues.
Government is however planning to extend EITI from the mining area to the oil and gas sector before the country commences production in commercial quantities in the last quarter of this year.
This would make government committed to the principles of managing the resources that will flow from the sector prudently.
Tullow Oil is on course to pump the first oil from Ghana's giant Jubilee field in the last quarter of this year.
The field is estimated to hold as much as 1.8 billion barrels of oil, and the output could ramp up to 150,000 barrels per day within months of startup.
Government has constituted a high level committee of security and legal experts to draft a policy document, aimed at safeguarding operations in the oil and gas sector.
The policy will protect the petroleum industry against acts of terrorism, sabotage, piracy and vandalism.
This would create a safe, secure and enabling environment to facilitate the exploration, exploitation and distribution of oil and gas.
Besides, it would prevent the diversion and stealing of petroleum products, and further prevent other users of the sea from interfering with operations.
According to the Minister of Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, government is putting up measures to give a timely response to emergencies in the oil and gas sector.
He said efforts should be made to ensure that transparency goes beyond the monitoring of the flow of oil revenues to all contracts signed between the extractive companies and the government.
Ghana signed up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) mechanism in 2003 to enhance improved governance in the mining sector through full publication and verification of company payments and government revenues.
Government is however planning to extend EITI from the mining area to the oil and gas sector before the country commences production in commercial quantities in the last quarter of this year.
This would make government committed to the principles of managing the resources that will flow from the sector prudently.
Tullow Oil is on course to pump the first oil from Ghana's giant Jubilee field in the last quarter of this year.
The field is estimated to hold as much as 1.8 billion barrels of oil, and the output could ramp up to 150,000 barrels per day within months of startup.
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