Install ‘flow meters’ to ensure transparency – Kwame Gyantua to Energy Ministry

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Created on Wednesday, 11 December 2013 10:17

Chief Executive Officer and a member of the civil society forum on oil, Lawyer Kwame Gyantua is calling on government to install parallel meters to be able ascertain the amount of oil coming out of the Jubilee Oilfield.

‘’How do we know how much oil is coming out from the ground,’’ he questioned.

According to Lawyer Gyantua the oil companies [Tullow and Cosmos] have the flow meters, ‘’in order for us to have a credible knowledge of the amount of oil coming out, there have to be parallel metering where government will have its own meter and depend on its own meter to be able to access how much oil is coming from the ground.’’

He cried the situation where government is depending on the oil companies to tell Ghana how much oil is coming from the ground. ‘’At the present moment we do not have that and I think it is not right because based on the amount oil coming out we know how revenue we are getting from our oil…’’

‘’At the present moment can we say we know whether we are getting value for money from the oil companies in terms of extraction…,’’ he queried.

A forum organized by the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) on aspects of the E&P Bill that need fine-tuning, has revealed that the issue of metering the flow of oil is still unresolved.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr Gyantua said “How do we know how much oil is coming out? We need an electronic way to be able to measure the quantity of oil coming out; ideally it should be published in the newspapers to bring transparency so that the ordinary Ghanaian knows.’’

But Communications Consultant at the Energy Ministry, Mr Edward Bawa responding to comments made by lawyer Kwame Gyantua said there are three flow meters, one of spare in Takoradi and two being used on the oil platforms.

‘’It is not true that we are still using the deep stick method, it is equally not true that we don’t have flow meters there [Oil fields]….’’

According to Mr Bawa the standard put in place to measure the quantity of oil extracted is one that works very well.


By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com