Skip to main content
  • News
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Search

Natural Resource Governance Institute

  • Topics
    Beneficial ownership
    Economic diversification
    Measurement of environmental and social impacts
    Sovereign wealth funds
    Civic space
    Global initiatives
    Measurement of governance
    State-owned enterprises
    Commodity prices
    Legislation and regulation
    Open data
    Subnational governance
    Contract transparency and monitoring
    Licensing and negotiation
    Revenue management
    Tax policy and revenue collection
    Corruption
    Mandatory payment disclosure
    Revenue sharing
  • Approach
    • Stakeholders
      • Civil society actors
      • Government officials
      • Journalists and media
      • Parliaments and political parties
      • Private sector
    • Natural Resource Charter
    • Regional knowledge hubs
  • Countries
    NRGI Priority Countries
    Colombia
    Guinea
    Mongolia
    Tanzania
    Dem. Rep. of Congo
    Indonesia
    Myanmar
    Tunisia
    Ghana
    Mexico
    Nigeria
    NRGI Limited Engagement Countries
    Azerbaijan
    Lebanon
    Senegal
    Ukraine
    Bolivia
    Peru
    Uganda
    Zambia
    Kyrgyz Republic
    Philippines
    OTHER COUNTRIES
  • Learning
    • Training
      • Residential training courses
        • Advanced
        • Executive
        • Anglophone Africa
        • Francophone Africa
        • Asia-Pacific
        • Eurasia
        • Latin America
        • Middle East and North Africa
      • Online training courses
        • Massive open online course (MOOC)
        • Interactive course: Petronia
        • Massive Online Open Course (Español/Spanish)
      • Trainers' modules
        • (empty)
    • Primers
    • Glossary
  • Analysis & Tools
    • Publications
    • Tools
    • Economic models
  • About Us
    • What we do
      • Strategic plan
      • Country prioritization
    • NRGI impact
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Council
    • Leadership team
    • Experts and staff
    • Careers and opportunities
    • Contact us
    • Financials
    • Grant-making
    • Privacy policy
  • News
  • Events
  • Blog

You are here

  1. Home
  2. Blog

Ghana’s New Petroleum Register Features Full-Text Contracts

12 February 2018
Author
Rob Pitman
Topics
Contract transparency and monitoring, Legislation and regulation, Licensing and negotiation, Open data
Countries
Ghana
Stakeholders
Civil society actors, Government officials, Journalists and media, Parliaments and political parties, Private sector
Precepts
P2 P3 What are Natural Resource Charter precepts?
Social Sharing

Last week, the government of Ghana followed through on a promise it made in July 2017 by launching a public petroleum register that contains the full texts of petroleum agreements, licenses, permits and authorizations.

It is particularly encouraging that the government opted to align the register with international best practices by incorporating full-text contracts into the platform. Whether these documents would be included has been an ongoing topic of discussion among Ghana’s EITI stakeholders because the 2016 Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act—which mandated the creation of the register—did not clarify whether full-text contracts or just a simple list of agreements would be made public. The government’s approach has gone some way toward addressing this important transparency issue; but to provide a legal basis for the policy, Ghana’s energy ministry should write a requirement for full-text publication into the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Regulations, which are currently in the final stages of drafting.

With a new contract with ExxonMobil being finalized, many users may question why that deal is not referenced in the register. To assuage these concerns, the government could ensure that the register include a list of all applications under consideration (and their status), in addition to listing applications that have been approved. The possibility that the government may announce a licensing round for new offshore blocks makes the need for such information all the more pressing.

Ghana’s new online petroleum contract registry, https://www.ghanapetroleumregister.com/

The publication of contracts is an important tool for holding public officials and company representatives accountable for the deals they make. When negotiators know that the outcome of their work will be public and subject to legal, public and commercial scrutiny, they have powerful incentives to draft more carefully. This will help companies—and most especially government negotiators—to resist high-level political interference and excessive industry pressure during negotiations and the drafting of these contracts. Such pressures are quite common in licensing and contract-award processes in resource-rich countries, and can lead to lopsided deals that are (politically) unsustainable and can result in costly disputes or renegotiations.

Contract transparency in the oil, gas and mining industries is fast emerging as a global norm. More than 1,500 contracts and other related documents are now in the public domain, according to open online contract libraries such as ResourceContracts.org and the OpenOil repository—and this number is growing. More than 40 countries have officially published contracts. And among 51 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) countries, 29 have disclosed at least some of their contracts.

Rob Pitman is a governance officer at the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI).

Related content

Resource Governance Index: Sub-Saharan Africa Highlights

31 January 2019

NRGI’s Top 10 Blog Posts in 2016

13 December 2016

NRGI Impact: Improving Contract Transparency in Ghana’s Petroleum Sector

2 November 2018

Tullow Disclosure Yields Insight into Ghana Oil, Gas Sector

David Mihalyi
15 May 2017

Closing the Gap: Strengthening the Development and Implementation of Natural Resource Commitments in the Open Government Partnership

13 November 2017

Recent Tweets

  • NRGI
    NRGI
    @NRGInstitute
    Follow @NRGInstitute
    How can new #petroleum producers manage the global energy transition? @prpheller reports back from a discussion in… t.co/Utz3Ma5oQu
    16 hours 18 min ago.
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • NRGI
    NRGI
    @NRGInstitute
    Follow @NRGInstitute
    As long as Indonesia is subsidizing #coal production, investors may shy away from its #renewables sector. NRGI’s… t.co/HW4PZCMGvS
    1 day 1 hour ago.
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • NRGI
    NRGI
    @NRGInstitute
    Follow @NRGInstitute
    @SaliouJalloh7 @acgillies t.co/PbJOvAthGp
    1 day 8 hours ago.
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • NRGI
    NRGI
    @NRGInstitute
    Follow @NRGInstitute
    A BBC investigation into a suspect #Senegal oil deal uncovered a story of possible #corruption that could have been… t.co/Q43znYHPhQ
    1 day 17 hours ago.
    Reply Retweet Favorite
Helping people to realize the benefits of their countries’ endowments of oil, gas and minerals.
Follow on Facebook Follow on Twitter Subscribe to Updates
  • Topics
    Beneficial ownership
    Civic space
    Commodity prices
    Contract transparency and monitoring
    Corruption
    Economic diversification
    Global initiatives
    Legislation and regulation
    Licensing and negotiation
    Mandatory payment disclosure
    Measurement of environmental and social impacts
    Measurement of governance
    Open data
    Revenue management
    Revenue sharing
    Sovereign wealth funds
    State-owned enterprises
    Subnational governance
    Tax policy and revenue collection
  • Approach
    Array
  • Priority
    Countries
    • Colombia
    • Dem. Rep. of Congo
    • Ghana
    • Guinea
    • Indonesia
    • Mexico
    • Mongolia
    • Myanmar
    • Nigeria
    • Tanzania
    • Tunisia
  • Learning
    • Training
    • Primers
  • Analysis & Tools
    Array
  • About Us
    • What we do
    • NRGI impact
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Council
    • Leadership team
    • Experts and staff
    • Careers and opportunities
    • Contact us
    • Financials
    • Grant-making
    • Privacy policy
  • News
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Search