Using Ghana’s Oil Sales Data For Accountability
15 December 2020 • 8:00AM GMT
New NRGI research explores how Ghana's civil society organizations (CSO), government officials, journalists and other oversight actors can use oil sales data to address the country's resource governance challenges, and maximize oil sales revenues and their allocation. In this webinar, attendees heard from a panel of experts and had the opportunity to pose questions to them.
Panelists:
Samuel Bekoe, Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth (moderating)
Steve Manteaw, Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
Mark Agyemang, Public Interest and Accountability Committee
Fatma Nyambura, EITI International Secretariat
Joseph Dadzie, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation
Background
The coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted the Ghanaian economy, with the IMF projecting that growth will slow to just 1.5 percent in 2020 compared to December 2019’s projection of 5.8 percent. The country, like many oil-rich states, is facing the challenge of responding to the pandemic with reduced government revenues resulting from the oil price crash. The coronavirus has also exacerbated the country’s debt sustainability issues, which were already on the rise prior to the pandemic.
Ghana is still a new producer, with first production from its Jubilee field occurring in December 2010 and the first cargo sold in early 2011, but the sector represents a significant source of revenue. Oil revenues totaled USD 938 million in 2019. Around USD 802 million of this amount, or 86 percent, came from cargos of oil sold by the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC). GNPC oil sales equaled a full nine percent of government revenue in 2019.
The cost of responding to the pandemic with reduced government revenues makes it more important than ever that citizens are able to analyze oil sales activities of the state company GNPC. Commodity trading activities are often opaque and do not receive the same level of scrutiny as a state’s upstream operations. This opacity can create opportunities for governance and corruption risks that result in the loss and mismanagement of potential revenues. However, Ghana is one of the most transparent countries in reporting on its commodity trading activities. GNPC, the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) and the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) all disclose information on the State’s oil sales activities. As one example, the Ministry of Finance has disclosed information on the volume, unit price, date of sale, and value for every cargo sold by GNPC to date. For all cargos sold from 2015 to 2019, GHEITI (2015 – 2018) and GNPC (2015 – 2019) have also included the name of the buying company in their disclosures.
In this context, NRGI has compiled a report which explores how this data can be used by civil society organizations (CSO), government, media and other oversight actors to address Ghana’s urgent resource governance challenges, including debt sustainability and GNPC and the government’s oil sales revenue maximization and allocation strategy.
Panelists:
Samuel Bekoe, Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth (moderating)
Steve Manteaw, Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
Mark Agyemang, Public Interest and Accountability Committee
Fatma Nyambura, EITI International Secretariat
Joseph Dadzie, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation
Background
The coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted the Ghanaian economy, with the IMF projecting that growth will slow to just 1.5 percent in 2020 compared to December 2019’s projection of 5.8 percent. The country, like many oil-rich states, is facing the challenge of responding to the pandemic with reduced government revenues resulting from the oil price crash. The coronavirus has also exacerbated the country’s debt sustainability issues, which were already on the rise prior to the pandemic.
Ghana is still a new producer, with first production from its Jubilee field occurring in December 2010 and the first cargo sold in early 2011, but the sector represents a significant source of revenue. Oil revenues totaled USD 938 million in 2019. Around USD 802 million of this amount, or 86 percent, came from cargos of oil sold by the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC). GNPC oil sales equaled a full nine percent of government revenue in 2019.
The cost of responding to the pandemic with reduced government revenues makes it more important than ever that citizens are able to analyze oil sales activities of the state company GNPC. Commodity trading activities are often opaque and do not receive the same level of scrutiny as a state’s upstream operations. This opacity can create opportunities for governance and corruption risks that result in the loss and mismanagement of potential revenues. However, Ghana is one of the most transparent countries in reporting on its commodity trading activities. GNPC, the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) and the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) all disclose information on the State’s oil sales activities. As one example, the Ministry of Finance has disclosed information on the volume, unit price, date of sale, and value for every cargo sold by GNPC to date. For all cargos sold from 2015 to 2019, GHEITI (2015 – 2018) and GNPC (2015 – 2019) have also included the name of the buying company in their disclosures.
In this context, NRGI has compiled a report which explores how this data can be used by civil society organizations (CSO), government, media and other oversight actors to address Ghana’s urgent resource governance challenges, including debt sustainability and GNPC and the government’s oil sales revenue maximization and allocation strategy.