National Petroleum Authority, Ghana

Kenya’s delegation to Ghana has commended the Country in the management of its petroleum reserves. The progress made in this direction is worth emulating and the delegation is confident to make recommendation to the Kenya government upon arrival. The visiting Kenyans who have since left the Country were full of praise for the petroleum industry in Ghana especially for the various institutions both upstream and downstream in the manner in which operations are coordinated for effective running of the industry. These remarks were made by the leader of the delegation to Ghana, Sumayya Hassan-Athmani who is also the Deputy Managing Director of the National Oil Corporation of Kenya, at a farewell dinner in Accra. The team had earlier visited the Hydro-power generation plant and BOST’s waterfront depot in Akosombo. They had earlier visited the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) where they were briefed on the activities of GNPC and the progress made so far on the much talked about ‘jubilee oil fields’ which is set to produce its first oil by the last quarter of this year. Prior to GNPC, the delegation had toured the facilities of Tema Offshore Mooring (TOM). The trip to Ghana is crucial because Kenya is considering setting up strategic petroleum reserves as Ghana has done and they found the success story of Ghana exemplary hence their choice of Ghana as their destination. The formation of National Oil was precipitated by the oil crisis of the 1970′s the 1980’s during which there were disruptions to supply and price hikes. This subsequently led to a rise in Kenya’s oil bill comprising of almost one third of the total value of imports and therefore making petroleum the largest single drain of Kenya’s foreign exchange earnings. In the national interest, it became for necessary for Kenya to have greater control of this crucial factor of the performance of the economy by having a company, which would act as an instrument of government policy in matters related to oil leading to the formation of ‘National Oil’ in 1984. Initial activities mainly consisted of exploration activities delegated from the Ministry of Energy. It was not until 1988 that National Oil went downstream and started importing crude oil, into the country. The company has a 100% Kenya Government shareholding. At the farewell dinner, the group were appreciative of NPA’s support to their visit. Acting Chief Executive of the Authority, Alex Mould said NPA is looking forward to a growing collaboration between the two entities and expressed Ghana’s willingness to open up to more of such visits.