The outgoing Norwegian Ambassador to Ghana, H. E. Gunnar Andreas Holm has called on the Petroleum Commission as he ends his four-year term as the representative of the Norwegian Government in Ghana.
He stated that the call was to thank the Commission for its cordial relationship with him and with the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).
“It’s been great to know the Petroleum Commission and to follow your work. I had the great pleasure of travelling with you to Oslo, Norway in February 2019 and I learnt a lot from the Commission and from the people I met during the programme. I would say these were some of the highlights of my stay here in Accra”, he revealed.
According to him, both countries have been connected through the upstream oil and gas sector. He added that the potential the sector has for private sector development, trade, investment, and other key economic aspect is enormous and he believes this will be rekindled when the pandemic is over.
The CEO of the Commission, Mr. Egbert Faibille Jnr. welcomed the Ambassador to the Commission again. Answering the Ambassador’s question on how the industry is faring in the pandemic, Mr. Faibille Jnr. stated that some projects has experienced some delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He explained that especially on the side of Norwegian interest in Ghana’s upstream oil and gas sector, the two Norwegian companies namely Aker and AGM invoked
force majeure to suspend their operations till the pandemic passes.
“Towards the end of the year, Aker Energy is required to submit its PDO after which a final investment decision will be made for the Pecan project to start and AGM is also conducting engineering studies on its discovery”, he added.
Mr. Faibille Jnr. noted that generally, Ghana has been fortunate and through the efficient leadership of the President H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo, COVID19 has not had a serious detrimental impact on the industry, adding that our three (3) producing fields have been producing seamlessly throughout the period.
He stated that the Commission has been learning from Norway’s experience in the industry and hopes that Ghana will adopt their principles particularly about building indigenous capacity.
Speaking on the Oil for Development (OFD) programme, the Director Finance, Mr. Vincent Yankey stated that the Commission benefitted tremendously from the programme.
He further stated that the programme was renewed but due to the pandemic the
programme has been stalled. He added that hopefully when the programme is resumed the Commission will be happy to participate again.