There is the need for Ghana to speed up the sustainable development of its petroleum resources to reverse the decline in production, the 2022 annual report of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee ( PIAC), the committee set up by an Act of Parliament to monitor petroleum funds utilisation, has recommended.
This recommendation follows the revelation in the report that crude oil production has been declining for three consecutive years.
A volume of 71,439,585 barrels was produced in 2019, but declined to 66,926,806 barrels in 2020, representing 6.32 percent, the report said.
The production further declined to 55,050,391 barrels in 2021 representating 17.75% and then to 51,756,481 barrels in 2022 also representing 5.98%.
The average decline over the three-year period is 10 percent the report stressed.
“There is the need for Ghana to speed up the sustainable development of its petroleum resources to reverse the decline in petroleum production through the attraction of new investors as well as early completion of ongoing project,” the report accordingly recommended.
It also indicated that surface rental arrears continued to rise.
It increased from US$2.58 million in 2021 to US$2.77 million in 2022, 65 percent (US$1.80 million) of which is owed by four contractors whose Petroleum Agreements were terminated in 2021.
Efforts made by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to retrieve the arrears were yet to yield the desired results, it said.
Accordingly, it recommended ” the GRA needs to intensify its efforts in the collection of Surface Rental arrears, particularly the amount owed by the four (4) contractors whose Petroleum Agreements were terminated in
2021.”