New petroleum law to be passed shortly
The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum is optimistic a new law will be introduced to govern the exploration and production of oil and gas in the country by the close of the year.
The law is to, among other things, define how oil and gas contracts should be awarded, renewed and/or abrogated and how exploration and producing companies should dispose off waste from their activities.
The Energy and Petroleum Ministry, which initiated the law, has since finalised a draft version of it and was approved by Cabinet about two months ago.
The law is now being prepared to be presented to Parliament for debate and subsequent passage into law, a Deputy Minister in-charge of Petroleum, Mr Benjamin Dagadu, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in Accra.
The said law is to replace the old aged petroleum law, the PNDC Law 84, passed in 1984, and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation’s act, which hitherto regulated the upstream oil and gas industry.
The current draft was formulated after series of deliberations with various stakeholders in the petroleum sector and indications are that it will serve the interest of the country and players in general.
The views of some 150 experts in the sector were sought in the run up to the drafting of the law. Some 50 institutions and organisations also made submissions that were factored into the draft, Mr Dagadu added.
By Maxwell Adombila Akalaare/Graphic Business/Ghana
