The Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, cut the ribbon to launch Ghana’s delegation pavilion at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC)2021 in Houston, Texas, USA, will run from today until Thursday.
The OTC, an annual event which started on Monday, August 16 and runs until Thursday, provides energy professionals with the opportunity to meet to exchange ideas and opinions to advance scientific and technical knowledge for offshore resources and environmental matters and has expanded technically and globally with the Arctic Technology Conference, OTC Brasil, and OTC Asia.
Dr. Prempeh was joined by one of his deputies, Hon. Egyapa Mercer, senior officials from the Ministry, Ghana’s Ambassador to U.S, CEOs of some sector agencies as well as leading executives from operators in Ghana’s oil and gas industry during the ceremony.
“Today we cut the ribbon to present and showcase Ghana’s pavilion at the OTC, to demonstrate to the world that truly, our petroleum industry is awash with exciting investment opportunities. We are here not only to tell the world about our flourishing Upstream Industry but also create awareness about opportunities in our Downstream Industry.”, Dr. Prempeh declared.
In the upstream space, the Minister referred to untapped hydrocarbon resources, both offshore and onshore, which Ghana hopes to sustainably explore and exploit through partnerships with private companies. He further referred to 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.
In the downstream sector, the Minister disclosed that Ghana aspires to become a hub for refined petroleum products in the West African sub-region and beyond by the year 2030. 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, it within our plans to develop Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) facilities to serve as alternative sources of fuel for transportation. “CNG is a cheaper and cleaner fuel than the other fossil sources and its use is in line with our broader goal transition progressively from the carbon-intensive sources to low carbon sources of energy”, he disclosed.
In addition to these, the Minister pointed to a congenial business atmosphere, the hospitality of the Ghanaian people and more importantly the country’s relative political stability that should make every investor consider Ghana as an investment destination.
