20100823
africanews

Ghana has 1.2 trillion cube feet of gas in the Jubilee field, in the western region, which could meet the requirement of 15,000 barrels of crude oil needed to operate the Aboadze Thermal Plant. There are 1.8 billion barrels of crude oil (recoverable reserves) in the Jubilee field, making it single biggest in Africa and second in the world.

Mohammed Amin Adams, a member of Civil Society Organisation Platform for Oil and Gas and coordinator of Publish What You Pay, a non-governmental organisation, said these at a forum on Oil and Gas on the theme: "community sensitization in forum with stakeholders on Oil and Gas", at Half Assini in the Western Region.

It was jointly organised by the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) and the Pentecostal Churches of Ghana (PCG) for religious leaders, chiefs and members of identifiable groups in and around Half Assini.

Adams said the right economic security for communities that would be directly affected by the oil exploration, must be addressed to ensure sustainable development and prevent oil nationalization, which may give rise to unintended consequence.

Adams said Ghana would earn 52 percent of its national revenue from oil and gas in the Jubilee field by 20 year's time.

He said the Jubilee field would be profitable to Ghana since the total investment including the cost of the Float Production storage and Offloading was 4 billion US dollars.

According to Mr Adams, by 2020, 90 percent of workers in the Oil industry would be Ghanaians and the oil companies would contribute towards their training.

Reverend Dr Nii Odonkor of the CCG, who was facilitator of the forum, said that the Council and the PCG can no long be silent over exploitation of Ghana's national resources.

He said the platform had been created for Ghana to improve upon issues affecting the oil industry in other countries.

Dr Shiloh Osae, of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), speaking on the topic: "Environmental Impact on Oil and Gas Production", said that soon Ghana's energy consumption would be shifted from fuel wood to gas.

He appealed to people living around the Jubilee field to inform the EPA about any strange environmental development along the cost.