Ghana’s Minister of Energy, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, on Monday, 16 August 2021, cut the ribbon to launch the country’s delegation pavilion at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) 2021 in Houston, Texas, USA, with a call on investors to take advantage and invest in the vast opportunities available in Ghana’s upstream and downstream petroleum industry.

Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Dr Prempeh said Ghana has investment opportunities in the petroleum industry.

He noted that in the upstream space, Ghana has a lot of untapped hydrocarbon resources, both offshore and onshore, which the country hopes to sustainably explore and exploit through partnerships with private companies.

Explaining how business is done in Ghana, Dr Prempeh told potential investors: “In Ghana, exploration and production (E&P) licences are awarded through open, transparent and competitive public tender processes”.

“However, E&P licences may be awarded through direct negotiations without public tender if direct negotiations represent the most efficient manner to achieve optimal exploration, development and production of petroleum resources in defined areas”, he said.

Dr Prempeh added: “Either way, prospective contractors must have the requisite technical and financial abilities to undertake petroleum activities.”

Touching on further investment opportunities available in the sector, Dr Prempeh stated: “There are also farm-in opportunities in some of the existing licences for prospective investors to operate through existing petroleum agreements without having to go through block application and negotiation processes.”

“Ghana’s sedimentary basins are de-risked and highly prospective and our petroleum industry is regulated by clear, predictable and suitable fiscal, legal and regulatory regimes”, he noted.

“In addition to these, the congenial business atmosphere, the hospitality of the Ghanaian people and more importantly, our relative political stability should make every investor consider Ghana as an investment destination,” Dr Prempeh said.

The Manhyia South lawmaker further noted that Ghana aspires to become a hub for refined petroleum products in the West African sub-region and beyond by the year 2030.

He explained that the hub involves the development of infrastructure such as refineries, port terminal facilities, storage facilities, petrochemical plants as well as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals with a network of pipelines.

In addition, he said “it’s within our plans to develop Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) facilities to serve as alternative sources of fuel for transportation.”

The team of exhibitors are from the Ministry of Energy, which is responsible for energy policy formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation as well as supervision and coordination of activities of energy sector agencies, the Petroleum Commission, which is the regulator of Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry and the National Petroleum Authority, whose mandate is to regulate the petroleum downstream industry in Ghana.