The Director General of Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Prof Benjamin Jabez Botwe Nyarko has indicated that Ghana has been applying nuclear technology for peaceful applications and wondered how some people would have erroneous perception that the Commission may be into the manufacture of atomic bomb.
According to him, the Commission was set up to champion the enormous benefits that can be derived from the atom and this has been the focus of the commission since its establishment.
He said Ghana has committed to the peaceful applications of nuclear technology by signing on to international conventions and treaties that empowers international bodies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect and monitor every activity of the Commission.
“You cannot engage in non-peaceful applications of nuclear technology in a secret way. You will be found out no matter where you’re doing the thing, so, atomic activities are not a secret activity,” he said during an exclusive interview with energynewsafrica.com.
“We have subscribed to Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that we will not do anything apart from peaceful uses of nuclear applications,” he added.
The Ghana Atomic Energy Commission was established by an Act of Parliament, Act 204 of 1963, as the sole Agency in Ghana responsible for all matters relating to peaceful uses of atomic energy.
The Act 204 was amended in 1993 by PNDC Law 308 mainly to enable it to create other institutes under the Commission. This amendment resulted in the creation of two other institutes in addition to the National Nuclear Research Institute (NNRI), formerly Kwame Nkrumah Nuclear Research Institute (KNNRI), namely: the Radiation Protection Institute, and the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute (BNARI).
The founding Act 204 of 1963 has been superseded by Act 588 of 2000 to make provision for GAEC to undertake commercialisation of its research and development results. Currently, the commission has seven technical institutes engaged in various aspects of peaceful applications of nuclear technology.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Petrosol, an indigenous Ghanaian oil marketing company, has paid a whopping GHS568 million as petroleum taxes.
This covers six years’ period between 2014 and 2020.
The Chief Executive Officer of Petrosol, Michael Bozumbil revealed this last Friday.
“We will continue to be a good corporate citizen. What we need from the state is your support so we can do more,” he said.
Petrosol has received triple ISO certification, thus, making it the first indigenous OMC to receive three certification.
The company received ISO 9001: 2015 for Quality Management System, ISO14001:2015 for Environmental Management System and ISO 45001: 2018 for Occupational Health & Safety Management System.
“This means that PETROSOL has internationally accepted systems and processes in place for procuring, storing, distributing and marketing fuel and lubricants that enable you, our cherished customers and consumers, receive clean fuel in full quantity and in safe and environmentally sustainable manner,” Mr. Bozumbil said.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
A federal judge in Louisiana blocked the Biden administration’s pause on oil and gas leasing on U.S. public lands and waters.
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in January to indefinitely halt new oil and gas leasing in federal lands and waters. This came only days after Biden temporarily halted leasing in the same areas.
The move was part of a sweeping plan to rein in fossil-fuel extraction and combat the effects of climate change.
This halt was heavily criticised by both the oil industry and producing states, as well as industry associations like the International Association of GeoChemistry, Independent Petroleum Association of America, and the American Petroleum Institute.
The review of the future federal oil leasing program by the Biden administration started in late March and will be completed in the coming days.
Fourteen states filed lawsuits to counter Biden’s decision.
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Okahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia filed one lawsuit in federal court in Louisiana.
The lawsuits allege the administration’s leasing pause violates the Mineral Leasing Act that requires quarterly lease sales.
The fourteenth state – Wyoming – filed its lawsuit in federal court in that state.
The Louisiana court ruled in favour of the thirteen states. According to Reuters, the judge’s decision, which applies to onshore and offshore leasing nationwide, will remain in effect pending the final resolution of the case or orders from higher courts, according to a court document.
Reuters said that, in the ruling, Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana said the states had met the requirements to establish that they would suffer injury from the pause on new oil and gas leases with ‘millions and possibly billions of dollars at stake’. Doughty also stated that the states had a ‘substantial likelihood of success’ with their lawsuit.
The Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry called it ‘a victory not only for the rule of law but also for the thousands of workers who produce affordable energy for Americans’.
It is worth noting the political side of this as the states which joined Louisiana’s lawsuit were all states with Republican attorneys general. Biden, of course, is a Democrat.
The Interior Department said it would comply with the ruling but did not say when auctions might resume while the API urged the administration ‘to move expeditiously to follow the court’s order and lift the federal leasing pause’.
Source: offshoreenergytoday.com
Nigeria borrowed a total of N1.3 trillion (US$3,170,731,590.00) since 2017 to ensure that generation companies and gas suppliers received adequate funds to continue generating electricity.
A local newspaper, The Punch quoted a report by World Bank titled ‘Resilience Through Reforms’ as saying.
The World Bank said Nigeria’s power sector will cost the Federal Government an additional N3.08 trillion through 2023 if current performance levels and low tariffs persist.
“To ensure that Gencos and gas suppliers receive enough payments to continue generating electricity, since 2017, the FGN has borrowed a total of N1.3tn ($4.2bn).
“In 2019, total FGN support reached N524bn ($1.7bn), 0.4 percent of GDP – higher than the N428bn budget for health and just 20 percent less than the N650bn budgeted for education.”
The Bank noted that even though all the six generation companies and eleven distribution companies have been privatised, the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company, buys electricity from the GENCOs and independent power producers before reselling to the Discos.
According to the Bank, government through the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission regulates tariff in the sector instead of allowing market forces to determine it.
It added that the transmission company of Nigeria was still strictly government-owned.
Nigerians pay less than the cost of production for electricity, the report said, adding that this resulted in revenue shortfall.
From 2015 through to 2019, the FG paid N1.68tn as cumulative tariff shortfall, it said, adding that because of foreign exchange depreciation and rising domestic inflation, tariff shortfalls had also been on the rise.
The bank said, “Every Nigerian who receives electricity from a Disco pays less for electricity than the cost of supplying it.
“However, 80 percent of the spending on tariff shortfalls benefits the richest 40 percent of the population; only eight percent benefits the bottom 40 percent, and of this, less than two percent benefits the poorest 20 per cent.
“Significant resources spent on funding tariff shortfalls disproportionately benefit the relatively wealthy who have access to the grid and use more electricity so that ultimately, a big chunk of government’s support goes to those who do not really need help with paying bills.”
The Bank said that 43 per cent of the population i.e. 85 million people lacked access to grid electricity, making Nigeria the nation with the world’s largest energy access deficit.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Vivo Energy Ghana, the exclusive marketers and distributors of Shell branded products and services in partnership with its transporters, S.O Frimpong, J. K. Horgle and J. K. Ahiadome Transport Company Limited and the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) have launched a National Road Safety Campaign under the theme, “Driving Ghana Safe a collective responsibility.”
The ‘Stop, Think & Drive’ National Road Safety Campaign has the objective of improving road safety consciousness among high risk commercial drivers and motorcycle riders to provide enhanced and safer transport services to commuters.
Under the campaign, over 30 defensive driving training sessions will be held for commercial drivers and motorcycle riders across the golden triangle of Ghana i.e. Greater Accra, Ashanti Region and the Western Regions. Participants will be taken through a comprehensive defensive driving training module.
Speaking at the launch, the Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana, Mr. Ben Hassan Ouattara said the training is expected to increase risk awareness of drivers, promote attitudinal change and increase the competence of beneficiary drivers and reduce carnage on our roads.
Mr. Ouattara reiterated Vivo Energy Ghana’s commitment to support the government and its agencies in reducing road accidents.
“As an energy company and fuel distributor, we recognise that the government cannot succeed in reducing carnages on our roads if they act alone. It is for this reason that Vivo Energy Ghana in partnership with its transporters continue to demonstrate its long-term commitment to the protection of lives through the implementation of road safety initiatives with support from the National Road Safety Authority”.
The Special Guest of Honour and the Director General of the National Road Safety Commission, Ing. May Obiri-Yeboah, stressed the importance and purpose of the campaign.
Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana, Mr. Ben Hassan Ouattara addressing commercial drivers and motorcycle riders at the launch of the ‘Stop, Think & Drive’ Road Safety Campaign
“While the skill to drive is important, the consciousness to realize that safety matters despite the conditions of the road and the actions of others is even more critical.”
Ing. May Obiri-Yeboah encouraged the drivers to put safety first by taking the training seriously to help build their capacity and protect themselves and commuters against possible crashes.
“We cannot deny that we still have bad road networks that affect safe driving, or that there are irresponsible drivers on our roads. These problems exist but as commercial vehicle drivers, your attitude towards these problems should not be one of indiscipline; your attitudes and actions should seek to always protect and keep yourself and others safe on the road”, she said.
Ing. May Obiri-Yeboah further commended Vivo Energy Ghana and its transporters for consistently championing road safety in Ghana through various interventions.
With a vision of becoming Africa’s most respected energy business, Vivo Energy goes beyond the sale of high quality Shell fuels and lubricants to playing its role as a socially responsible company through the critical areas such as road safety, education and the environment.”
Source www.energynewsafrica.com
Six communities in the Karaga Constituency in the Northern Region of Ghana have been connected to the national grid.
These communities are Sandua, Tulinga, Pukura, Sologu, Tandong and Babilga.
The Member Of Parliament (MP) for Karaga Constituency and a Deputy Minister nominee for Energy, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam announced this on his Facebook wall.
“These communities have now joined the over 40 communities that have been connected to the grid in the Karaga Constituency in the last two years.
“I am happy about the excitement of the people in these communities,” Dr Amin Adam said.
Ghana’s electricity access is about 85 percent and the President of Ghana, Akufo-Addo, has promised to ensure that by the time his second term ends, communities without electricity would be connected to the national grid to ensure that the country achieves 100 percent electricity access.
Dr Amin, whose effort resulted in the six communities getting connected to the grid, said the move was in furtherance to President Akufo-Addo’s commitment to achieving universal access to electricity in Ghana.
A three-member Interim Management Committee (IMC) has been set up to oversee the operations of Ghana’s only oil refinery, Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), after the dismissal of the refinery’s Managing Director and a Deputy.
The IMC is being chaired by Ing Norbert Anku, a former Managing Director of Enclave Power Limited, an independent power producer in the West African nation.
Other members of the IMC are Mr. William Ntim Boadu and Mr. Okyere Baffuor Sarpong.
The committee’s terms of reference include, among others, to ensure the smooth transfer from the outgone Directors, undertake technical and human resource audits as well as receiving and assessing viable partnerships for TOR, if any.
Inaugurating the three-member committee at the refinery on Tuesday, Ghana’s Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh urged the IMC to be diligent in its work and bring their rich experience to bear in the discharge of their mandate.
He stressed the need to find the right partnerships, managerial infrastructure and equipment to enable TOR work as a strategic stakeholder in the oil and gas sector.
Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Energy Minister in a group photograph with the three member committee
Dr. Prempeh also urged the staff of the refinery to put all past rancours behind them, cooperate with the IMC and work hard to ensure the success of the refinery.
The committee is to submit its report including findings and recommendations, to the Dr. Prempeh within three months.
Energynewsafrica.com reported earlier on Tuesday that the Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery, Mr. Francis Boateng, and his Deputy, Ato Morrison, have been sacked.
The duo, according to energynewsafrica.com’s sources, received their dismissal letters on Friday.
It is unclear what occasioned their dismissal but energynewsafrica.com recalls that there had been agitations in
recent times by union workers demanding the removal of their MD and his Deputy over show of poor leadership.
The 45000bpd refinery built during the regime of Ghana’s first President, the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah, has been struggling and is saddled with huge indebtedness as a result of bad governance by successive governments.
Information from reliable sources indicates the Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Francis Boateng, and his Deputy, Ato Morrison, have been relieved from their positions.
It is unclear what occasioned their dismissal.
Sources within the West African nation’s only refinery indicated that the MD and his deputy received letters on Friday, asking them to vacate their offices.
Mr Francis Boateng was the General Manager for Commercial Operations at the Ghana National Gas Company before he was appointed Managing Director of TOR.
He replaced Kweku Asante Berko, who resigned over allegations of his involvement in a bribery scandal by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S.A.
Francis Boateng was the third person to manage TOR during the four years’ term of the first administration of President Nana Akufo-Addo.
According to sources, the Energy Ministry has been tasked to constitute an interim management committee to oversee to the operations of the refinery until a substantive Managing Director is appointed.
Mr Ato Morrison
Energynewsafrica.com’s sources indicate that Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, will be at TOR this morning to inaugurate the Interim Management Committee.
It would be recalled that there had been agitations by a section of the workers calling for the dismissal of the MD and his deputy for poorly managing the refinery.
The 45,000 bpd capacity refinery, built during the regime of Ghana’s first President, the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah, has been struggling due to mismanagement by successive governments.
More to come soon
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s largest state power generation company, Volta River Authority (VRA), says the premier power generator will lead the effort to build clean and more environmentally sustainable power systems that would safeguard future generations.
Ing. Emmanuel Antwi Darkwa gave this assurance last Friday when he led officials of VRA to plant trees as part of Green Ghana Project which saw planting of about five million trees by Ghanaians across the West African nation.
“This is why we continue to embark on significant investments in renewable projects and other low carbon power generation technologies to maintain the country’s low and acceptable carbon footprint,” Ing Antwi Darkwa said as carried by the Ghana News Agency.
According to the newswire, Ing Antwi Darkwa said the Authority owed responsibility to the public to operate and ensure that all water resource systems in the country, particularly the Volta River system was kept pristine and managed in a sustainable manner.
He said the Green Ghana Project is tied to the Authority’s ‘Volta Gorge Reforestation Programme (VGRP)’ aimed at forest cover restoration through the protection of the existing vegetation and restocking of all degraded lands.
The VGRP consisted of 23 reforestation projects being implemented in 23 riparian communities along both the Eastern and Western banks of the Volta Gorge in the Asougyaman District.
“We have so far covered a substantial amount of area with new vegetative cover consisting of both plantation and natural forest”, he said.
He said the initiative was important because sustainable development was key to the Authority’s business and its stakeholders, adding that issues of climate change and environmental protection were of utmost importance to the company.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
A former Secretary General of African Petroleum Producers Association, H.E Mahaman Laouan Gaya, has criticised organisers of the African Oil Week for deciding to host the continent’s flagship oil event in Dubai, UAE, in November 2021.
“Africans need to know that our dignity should not be given away. This is a clear sign of poor leadership. Africa will not reach its global potential if we continue to see supposedly investment promotion-focused organisations abandoning the continent at the smallest challenge,” H.E Mahaman Laouan Gaya said.
“The African Oil Industry is at the cross roads, and going into COP26, we need to have an African agenda on energy transition and energy poverty. These discussions cannot be had in Dubai. African Petroleum Producers and other energy producers should distance themselves from this initiative of taking Africans to Dubai,” he further added.
H.E Mahaman Laouan Gaya, who is also a former Petroleum Minister of the Niger Republic, described the organiser’s decision as a “humiliating idea”.
Mr. Gaya encouraged the idea of bringing African representatives and its global strategic partners to an African location to debate and find solutions and synergies to address the continent’s challenges and showcase its opportunities.
He condemned AOW’s lack of good leadership.
With this in mind, he passionately suggested that governments and organisations alike should enforce a mandate of promotion and development of the oil and gas industry by standing up for it when it is necessary and lead the rest of the world by example.
In a dedicated approach, H.E Mahaman Laouan Gaya railed behind the African Energy Chamber, the Mozambican Oil and Gas Chamber and many others against the move of the pan-African event and called on the international community to support this cause.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
The Content Director of Enlit Africa, formerly African Utility Week, Claire Volkwyn, has described as a bold decision by President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, to raise the cap on self-electricity generation without licence to 100MW.
Claire Volkwyn, who was speaking during the just ended Enlit Africa Digital Event hosted in South Africa, said: “The country is in the throes of an energy crisis and the importance of the discussions we had at Enlit Africa this week have been punctuated by load shedding.”
According to Volkwyn, there are many opportunities for independent generators to take advantage of South Africa’s abundant solar resources.
“This will be supported by battery storage, which has become more affordable over the past few years and this is a trend we fully expect to see continue as the technology matures and becomes more efficient.
“So many of our sessions over the last few days have touched on the role of gas in Africa, opportunities for solar in the C&I market, and how we move forward as a country and a continent to supply clean, affordable and reliable power to all the people of Africa. We look forward to continuing these discussions in November, and again in June 2022, live in Cape Town.”
Petrosol Ghana, an indigenous Ghanaian Oil Marketing Company in the Republic of Ghana, has received triple ISO certification for instituting best practices in the operations of the company.
The three ISO certification follows rigorous international auditing of Petrosol’s internal systems and processes for procuring, storing, distributing and marketing fuel and lubricants by TUV HESSEN on behalf of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
The three ISO certificates are: ISO 9001: 2015 for Quality Management System, ISO 14001: 2015 for Environmental Management System and ISO 45001: 2018 for Occupational Health & Safety Management System.
Speaking at a ceremony to present the certificates to the downstream regulator, CEO of Petrosol, Michael Bozumbil said PETROSOL believes in regulatory compliance and, thus, continuously works hard to raise its standards to internationally acceptable levels of compliance.
Mr. Bozumbil was of the view that this milestone chalked by the company would give their financiers and suppliers an assurance that it had put in place systems and structures that ensured that the business remained a sustainable one with capacity to repay facilities and credit granted to them.
He called on petroleum consumers to continue patronising the company’s products and service “because we are a company that complies with regulatory requirements and also places the sustainability of the environment, the safety of people and property as our topmost priority.”
Mr. Bozumbil, who praised the staff and management of PETROSOL and dealers for their dedication, loyalty and hard work dealers, said: “This should boost your confidence and assure you that you are at the right place.
“As I have always told you, excellence has no nationality. Please, keep it up!”
The Director of Corporate Affairs for the National Petroleum Authority Maria Edith Oquaye who represented the downstream petroleum regulator congratulated Petrosol for being the first indigenous oil marketing company to hold three ISO certifications.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has charged Management of Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) to be firm in their collection of electricity bills.
The Minister said it would be impossible for the utility company to be operating at a loss due to customers not satisfying their payment requirements.
The Minister said he was looking forward to a stronger, more innovative and more viable NEDCo that would play an even bigger role in President Akufo-Addo’s vision for the power sector, which is key to the country’s industrial agenda.
The Energy Minister said this during a meeting with Management of NEDCo, led by the Managing Director, Mr Osmani Aludiba Ayuba, at the Energy Ministry.
Mr. Osmani Aludiba Ayuba (right), Managing Director of NEDCo
In a Facebook post sighted by energynewsafrica.com, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh explained that the purpose of the meeting was to brief him on how the company has been faring so far, the challenges it faces, what they have implemented to mitigate them and a request the Ministry to come to their aid.
“Among some of the challenges they shared were the operational losses due to the wide area and the long stringing of transmission lines, the need to upgrade these lines and unpaid bills from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies they distribute power to,” his Facebook post concluded.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
The ten largest public oil firms in the world reported combined profits of $46 billion for the first quarter of 2021, thanks to higher oil prices this year, data compiled by Anadolu Agency from financial statements showed this week.
The top ten firms that the agency analyzed—ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, Shell, BP, Eni, Equinor, Lukoil, Rosneft, and Saudi Aramco—saw their combined profits rise by $8.5 billion due to the more favorable commodity price environment and signs of recovering demand.
To compare, in Q1 2020, when the pandemic hit oil demand and oil prices, only U.S. firm Chevron and the Saudi giant Aramco reported profits—of a total of $20.3 billion—while the other eight international and national oil majors lost a combined $17.7 billion, according to the estimates compiled by Anadolu Agency.
BP saw the largest increase in profit in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020, the agency’s calculations showed.
BP reported a profit attributable to shareholders of $4.7 billion in Q1 2021, compared to a loss of $4.4 billion for the first quarter of 2020.
The supermajor resumed share buybacks this quarter after more than tripling its first-quarter earnings from a year ago on the back of rising oil prices and “exceptional gas marketing and trading performance.”
BP reported underlying replacement cost profit—its proxy for net profit—of $2.63 billion, up from $791 million for the first quarter of last year and from just $115 million for the fourth quarter of 2020.
In terms of revenues, Anadolu Agency’s estimates show that combined revenues of the top ten oil firms increased by 6.6 percent annually to around $387 billion. Saudi Aramco’s revenues rose the most—by 20 percent to $80 billion.
The Saudi giant also reported a 30-percent jump in net income for the first quarter of the year to $21.7 billion.
Source: Oilprice.com
Dr Amin, whose effort resulted in the six communities getting connected to the grid, said the move was in furtherance to President Akufo-Addo’s commitment to achieving universal access to electricity in Ghana. 
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
