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Parliament urges payment of indebtedness to GNPC

Parliament urges payment of indebtedness to GNPC

Parliament has urged the Minister of Finance to impress upon state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to settle their GH¢1.3 billion indebtedness to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

The call on the Minister of Finance to ensure the settlement of SOEs's debts to GNPC was a recommendation of the Finance Committee of Parliament which was adopted by the House.

It made the recommendation following the revelation in the 2018 Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) report on the management of petroleum revenues for 2018, which indicated that debts owed to GNPC by SOEs now stood at GH¢1,318,393,339.

Presenting the report of the Finance Committee on the 2018 PIAC report, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa and member of the committee, Mr Anthony Effah, said per the terms of the agreements, the debts were expected to be paid by the end of December, 2018.

However, he said, as of now the amounts were yet to be paid, and indicated that the delay would impact negatively on the operations of GNPC in fulfilling its core mandate.

Oil/gas production

According to the report of the Finance Committee, a total of 28,982,050 barrels of oil was produced from the country's offshore producing fields between January and June, 2018.

A total of 11,923,286 barrels was produced from the Jubilee Field, 11,772,267 barrels from TEN and 5,286,497 barrels from SGN.

The report said that production represented a 19.04 per cent increase over the first half of 2017 production.

It said the increased half year production was as a result of improved production from the TEN and SGN fields.

On gas production, the report indicated that total volume of raw gas produced in the first half of 2018 amounted to 44,797.21 million standard cubic feet (MMScf) per day compared to 31,673.96 MMScf for the same period in 2017.

It said a total of 14,694.27 MMScf of raw gas was exported to the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant in the first half of 2018.

Petroleum receipts

The report indicated that total petroleum receipts of $463,569,064 was paid into the Petroleum Holding Fund for the first half of 2018.

It said the amount was realised from various sources that constituted petroleum revenues.

Giving the breakdown, the report said the carried interest amounted to $168,575,887; royalties, $151,754,754; additional participating interest, $69,685,300 and surface rentals, corporate tax and interest income amounted to $73,553,119.

Expenditure and Heritage Account

In his contribution, the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee and National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Ajumako/Enyam/Essiam, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, expressed concern about the huge budgetary allocation to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

For instance, he said, the allocation to GNPC covered 30 per cent as against 20 per cent allocation for annual budget funding amount (ABFA).

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