Brazilian oil company Petrobras has extended a contract with Seadrill for the use of a drillship.
Seadrill said Monday that the contract was for the West Tellus drillship. Seadrill’s West Tellus is a 6th generation DP3 drillship rated for 3,600m water depth. It was built in 2013 by Samsung Shipyard in South Korea.
According to the offshore drilling contractor, the contract value is expected to be valued at approximately $170 million, inclusive of managed pressure drilling and ancillary services. This amount sets the dayrate at around $230,000, which is lower compared to the rig’s previous dayrate of $317,000 (as disclosed in Seadrill’s fleet status report)
The contract is expected to starts in 4Q 2019, in direct continuation of its current contract with Petrobras.
The manager of an oil tanker being probed by Brazilian authorities in connection with an oil spill off the country’s coast has found “no proof” of the vessel conducting activities that may have led to leaks on a journey between Venezuela and Malaysia.
In a statement on Saturday, Delta Tankers Ltd, who manages the Greek-flagged Bouboulina ship, said a full search of the material from the cameras and sensors that all their vessels carry revealed no evidence of the tanker “having stopped, conducted any kind of ship-to-ship operation, leaked, slowed down or veered off course, on its passage from Venezuela to Melaka, Malaysia.”
Delta Tankers reiterated the vessel sailed from Venezuela in laden condition on July 19, heading directly, with no stops at other ports, for Melaka, Malaysia, where the tanker discharged its entire cargo without any shortage.
Brazilian authorities on Friday claimed that a Greek-flagged ship carrying Venezuelan crude was the source of the crude oil tarring Brazil’s coastline over the past two months.
The Brazilians said the tanker appears to have spilled the crude about 700 km (420 miles) off Brazil’s coast around July 28-29, after loading the oil in Venezuela.
The prosecutors conducting the probe said they found strong evidence that the company, the captain and the vessel’s crew failed to communicate to authorities about the oil spill and or release of the crude oil in the Atlantic Ocean.
The contradicting accounts, along with the execution of police search warrants in Rio de Janeiro, brought a dramatic twist into the causes of the mysterious oil spill that has stained tropical beaches along 2,500 km of Brazil’s coast.
Brazil’s solicitor general said the country would seek damages in the case, which has hurt tourism and fishing communities in Brazil’s poorer northeast region.
On Saturday, Delta said cameras and sensors that all its vessels carry as part of their safety and environmental policies, monitor activity on board and alongside vessels, as well as course alternations, stoppages, and speed data.
The company said the material obtained from an analysis of its security equipment will be shared with Brazilian authorities when they contact the company regarding the investigation, adding that no such contact has been made.
A former Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s national oil company, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Mr. Alex Mould, has called for a broad stakeholder consensus to give authority to the national oil company, to be a catalyst for deepening local content in the upstream and midstream oil and gas sectors.
Catalysing local content development has been one of the key pillars of GNPC’s strategy.
But as it is now, GNPC is only a non-operating partner in all the oil and gas offshore in Ghana, Mr. Mould said.
According to industry experts, participation in the West African nation’s oil and gas requires large and long-term capital and technical knowledge. None of these is easily available to Ghanaian entrepreneurs.
Besides its rich technical expertise, GNPC has the balance sheet to raise the needed capital for long term exploration and development.
“As the NOC, Government and the public should support GNPC to take increasing stake in oil blocks. This must be done strategically. GNPC must not take higher stake just for the sake of it,” Myjoyonline.com reported Mr. Mould as saying in a speech at the Oil and Gas Conference held at the University of East London in the United Kingdom.
The energy and finance expert added that “The Corporation has a unique reservoir of knowledge on all of Ghana’s basins; more than any other entity. What the Corporation needs is clear support to enable it grow and develop in the manner some of the most successful ones did it, like Petronas of Malaysia.”
Currently, GNPC is the anchor, but a non-operating partner in all the oil and gas fields in Ghana. Not being the field operator limits GNPC’s ability to drive the local participation agenda.
Mr. Mould indicated “more important is how GNPC uses its local dominance in the industry. GNPC’s strategy must be to pave the way for increased local private participation. This could be achieved through listing of subsidiaries on the Ghana stock exchange so that ordinary Ghanaians can buy the shares”.
In the Voltaian basin where GNPC is the sole operator, the Corporation must build an eco-system of local companies to support its activities from these early stages, and grow with them. This will require a number of things: developing a pool of potential local partners, being fair and transparent in the selection of local contractors for any specific contracts, and nurturing them for the long haul.
Speaking on the theme: “Ghana’s Oil and Gas Resources For Socio-Economic Development” Mr Mould noted that, GNPC has been playing an enabling role in the energy sector as well as the wider economy.
“Like any state enterprise, it has a dual mandate: to pursue commercial as well as developmental objectives. During my time as CEO of GNPC, we provided the financial guarantees that enabled the deployment of the Karpowership barge from Turkey to provide electricity. The rationale for GNPC’s support in this transaction was two-fold: the power barge was necessary to mitigate an urgent power generation deficit in the country. But more importantly, the barge was meant to convert from using Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to natural gas. This was meant to avert incurring take or pay liabilities on the Sankofa gas.
“In this transaction also, we did something quite smart: we took up the role to supply the HFO to the barge, at a margin. We also negotiated to use mainly existing placements with banks as the guarantee. GNPC was, therefore, earning interest income on the guarantee.
“GNPC similarly intervened in other areas, including pre-financing the construction of access roads to enable the evacuation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Not doing this would have created a bottleneck in gas processing and gas offtake.”
Also, GNPC can play a significant role in attracting and adapting the right technology to further indigenise the development of the oil and gas sector in Ghana. The sector is technology-driven. Through its partnerships, GNPC must be conscious to partner with companies that are willing to share their technology, including proprietary ones. Then GNPC must invest in its people and processes in order to be able to adapt those technologies to suit the Ghanaian environment.
In addition to that, GNPC must invest in research and technology to solve the peculiar problems of the oil and gas sector, within the Ghanaian context. A good example is Petrobras of Brazil, which invested heavily in understanding its oil-rich offshore reserves trapped below a 2,000m-thick layer of salt, which itself is located below 2,000m-thick post-salt sediments. Now, Petrobras has become a world leader in pre-salt and deepwater exploration and development.
An oil and gas expert in the Republic of Ghana, Mr Alex Mould has advised that, for the survival as well as the future of Ghana’s energy security, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) must transition from an oil company to an integrated energy company.
Alex Mould, who is a former CEO of GNPC, is suggesting that the national petroleum company focus less on fossil fuels (oil and gas) as it does now and rather focus more on greener energy.
“Because even if the oil supply is inexhaustible, the world will eventually move away from oil”, he said this at the maiden Oil and Gas Conference at the University of East London in the United Kingdom.
The world at large is pursuing an agenda to end over-reliance on fossil fuels for centuries now in efforts to reduce the menace of the daunting climate change and the ozone depletion rate. Many development and energy experts have proposed renewable energies as the best alternative to fossils fuels.
He quoted a former Saudi Arabian Oil Minister, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani who once stated that “The Stone Age came to an end, not because we had a lack of stones; and the oil age will come to an end, not because we have a lack of oil.”
Mr Mould, who was one of the energy industry experts invited to speak on the topic, “Can Ghana avoid the oil curse?” called for the need to be a national consensus on the need to redefine the role of GNPC.
As at now, the role of GNPC is to represent the state in oil and gas exploration, development, production and sales activities, he indicated.
In a related development, the former GNPC Boss wants GNPC to be a facilitator to improve active local participation.
“GNPC must lead efforts to improve active local participation. As the National Oil Company, Government and the public should support GNPC to take increasing stake in oil blocks.
“This must be done strategically. GNPC must not take higher stake just for the sake of it. But the Corporation has a unique reservoir of knowledge on all the basins; more than any other entity in Ghana. What the Corporation needs is clear support to enable it grow and develop in the manner some of the most successful ones did it, like Petronas of Malaysia” he mentioned
The former GNPC Boss admonished that, although Ghana is promoting norms and electing leaders democratically, there needs to be a strengthening of the checks and balances in the parliamentary system in order to reduce corruption and the mismanagement of resources.
A Deputy Managing Director in charge of customer services at Ghana’s electricity distribution and retail company, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mr. Kwame Agyeman-Budu, has been appointed as the new Managing Director of ECG.
His appointment follows the termination of the appointment of his immediate boss, Ing. Samuel Boakye-Appiah.
He has over 28 years of work experience in the energy industry.
Below is the profile of Kwame Agyeman-Budu.
Profile of the new ECG Boss: Kwame Agyeman-Budu
Kwame Agyeman-Budu is an energy expert with 28 years of work experience in the energy industry. Before his appointment, Agyeman-Budu was the Customer Project Manager in the Energy Service Department of the Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc., the largest utility company in the US with over 15,000 employees and serving over 3.3 million electric customers and over 1 million natural gas customers.
His responsibilities among others were to manage, coordinate, and provide safe, reliable, and efficient electric and gas services to customers.
Kwame Agyeman-Budu(2nd left) chatting with President Akufo-Addo in New York, USA
Agyeman-Budu’s years of experience in the energy industry cut across areas of Distributed Generation (Combined Heat & Power CHP), Solar (Photovoltaic), Advanced Battery, Windmill, and Fuel Cell Technologies, Alternate Energy, Environmental Audits and Monitoring, Environmental Risk Assessment, Power Plant Systems, Smart Grid Systems, and Systems Engineering and Management. In his academic pursuit, Kwame Agyeman-Budu obtained the following qualifications:
Master’s Degree in Energy Management from the New York Institute of Technology, New York
Bachelor of Technology Degree in Telecommunications from the New York City College of Technology, New York
Associate Degree in Applied Science Electrical Engineering Technology from the New York City College of Technology, New York.
Certificate in Facilities Management from the New York Institute of Technology, New York
Teacher Certificate, Wesley College, Kumasi
O’Level Certificate, Ejisuman Senior High School, Ejisu
In his professional career with ConEdison, the numerous contribution of Kwame to the company included:
Managed a $15M High Tension Gateway Expansion Project (GEP) at LaGuardia Airport, New York City.
Managing a $5m High Tension Reinforcement Project, and a 10MW Distribution Generation Plant (Co-generation) for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) at their North River Waste Water Treatment Plant (NRWWTP) in New York.
Managed an 11MW Distribution Generation Plant (co-generation) in Staten Island, New York for Cubit Power (private company) to sell back (Service Classification: SC-11,Buyback) the entire 11MW of power produced to the grid of Consolidated Edison Company of New York.
Supervised the numerous New York City Energy Conservation Solar Projects for New York City Public Schools, Department of Transportation, New York Police Department
(NYPD), and New York Fire Department (NYFD). These projects have brought Load Relief on Consolidated Edison Company of New York to effectively, reliably, and efficiently power its customers in New York City and Orange and Rockland Counties without service interruption.
Responsible for varieties of power distribution, power quality, lightning protection, transformer installations, Distribution Generation (Co-gen), and Natural Gas services.
Responsible for electrical installation, construction, operation and maintenance of High Tension service including all cables, wires, buses, switchgears, transformers, network protectors (NWP), instrument transformers (PTs and CTs).
Responsible for the installation of Renewable Energy Technologies (Solar, Fuel Cells, Windmill, and Thermal).
Responsible for monitoring and controlling of projects costs, and take corrective actions to minimize deviation.
Responsible for approval of electrical services to High Rise Residential and Commercial Buildings.
Responsible for approval and authorization of electric meters to residential and commercial customers.
Reviewed single and/or three line electrical diagrams for the installation of low voltage and high tension services.
Monitored and controlled project cost and took corrective actions to minimize deviations.
Witnessed Ground and Test (G&T) device, proof-test of High Voltage Cables (Hi-Pot), and Ground Resistance Test.
Reviewed and validated customers’
Short Circuit and Coordination Studies, and False Current Analysis. For his hard work, Kwame received several awards at the Consolidated Edison Company of New York for his dedication and service to duty: Team Award (2013), Customer Focused Luminaire Award (2012), Best Employee Award (1993 & 1997), and Excellence Award (1993).
He has also received many awards from the Ghanaian Catholic Apostolate Church of Brooklyn (Service to the Ghanaian Community, Lay Leader Award & Dedicated Service Award), United Ghanaian Association of USA (Dedication of Service Award).
He also served as the board member of Baldwin College Foundation and St. Catherine and Teresa of Little Flower Academy, and President of the Science & Technology Entry Program of the College of Staten Island, all in the USA.
Kwame raised the Ghana Flag at the Brooklyn Boro Hall during Ghana at 60 celebrations in New York and was presented a citation for his service and dedication to the Ghanaian community in New York Boroug President of Brooklyn
At the political front, Kwame Agyeman-Budu has paid his dues to the New Patriotic Party. Amember of the Ejisu constituency, he has risen through the ranks in the NPP-USA branch, starting as the Brooklyn Borough Coordinator of the NPP between 1996 to 1999 and just before his appointment, as the National Organizer of the NPP-USA branch from 2012. In between these times, Agyeman-Budu also serves as the Dep. Gen Sec of NPP-New York (2000-2004)
Gen. Sec. of NPP-NY (2005-2008), Vice Chairman of NPP-NY (2009-2017), and NPP-USA Deputy Organizer (2008-2011).Kwame Agyeman-Budu is a dedicated Catholic with years of voluntary service to the St. Catherine of Genoa Catholic Church in Brooklyn. He also dedicated considerable time to offer voluntary service to the Ghanaian community and its affiliate associations in the USA. Author of the book, Energy Efficient Lighting, Kwame was born in 1962 in Kumasi, had his primary education at Asafo Division Primary School, Kumasi, and his secondary education at Ejisuman Secondary School. Before his elevation to the position of Acting Managing Director, Kwame Agyeman-Budu was the Deputy Managing Director in charge of corporate services. He is committed to contributing ideas to help ECG reach its full potential for the socio-economic development of Ghana.
The Managing Director of Ghana’s power distribution and retail company, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ing. Samuel Boakye-Appiah has been sacked, a letter from the Energy Ministry has revealed.
He has been ordered to hand over to his second in command Kwame Agyeman-Badu with immediate effect.
Boakye-Appiah was appointed in February, 2017 by President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Engineer Boakye-Appiah joined the Electricity Company of Ghana, (ECG) on 4th January, 1990 and has served in various capacities till date.
US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil reported a 3Q net profit of ~$3.2 billion, a 49 percent fall $6.25 billion a year ago.
The company cited lower prices, and higher growth-related expenses in the upstream division, lower margins in the Chemical and Downstream businesses as some of the reasons behind the drop in earnings.
Brent crude averaged $62 in the third quarter of 2019, down from $75 in the third quarter of 2018.
Exxon’s production grew three percent from the third quarter of 2018 to 3.9 million barrels per day. Excluding entitlement effects and divestments, liquids production increased 4 percent driven by Permian Basin growth, while natural gas volumes increased 1 percent.
“Liquids volumes were in line with the second quarter, with U.S. unconventional growth offsetting the base decline. Natural gas volumes were down 1 percent. Permian unconventional development continued with production up 7 percent from the second quarter and more than 70 percent from the third quarter of last year, “ ExxonMobil said.
In the offshore space during the quarter, the company announced another oil discovery on the Stabroek block offshore Guyana at the Tripletail-1 well, adding to the previously announced resource estimate of more than 6 billion oil-equivalent barrels.
The Liza Destiny floating production, storage, and offloading vessel arrived offshore Guyana, targeting first oil at the Liza Phase 1 development by December 2019. ExxonMobil estimates gross production from the Stabroek block will exceed 750,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day by 2025.
In Europe, ExxonMobil signed an agreement with Vår Energi AS for the sale of its non-operated upstream assets in Norway for $4.5 billion as part of its previously announced plans to divest approximately $15 billion in non-strategic assets by 2021.
“We are making excellent progress on our long-term growth strategy,” Darren W. Woods, chairman, and chief executive officer said.
“Growth in the Permian continues to drive increased liquids production and we are ahead of schedule for first oil in Guyana. The value of our position in Guyana improved further this quarter with an additional discovery, our fourth this year. We are also making good progress on our advantaged investments in the Downstream and Chemical.
“This quarter, we started production at our new high-performance polyethylene line in Beaumont. The competitiveness of our portfolio was further enhanced with the divestment of non-strategic assets, reaching almost a third of our 2021 objective of $15 billion.”
The geothermal drilling market size for power generation is expected to post a CAGR of almost 9% during 2019-2023, according to the latest market research report by Technavio.
The rising levels of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) in the atmosphere will lead to an increase in the use of renewable energy sources such as geothermal, solar, wind, and hydropower for power generation.
Unlike fossil fuels, geothermal energy generation does not require combustion and releases low amounts of GHGs into the atmosphere. Thus, the increasing emphasis on generating electricity with minimal GHG emissions will increase the demand for geothermal energy during the forecast period.
According to Technavio, another factor stimulating market growth is the development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS).
Geothermal energy generation currently comes from hydrothermal reservoirs and is limited to few locations across the world. EGS provides high potential for increasing the reach of geothermal energy.
Furthermore, it is a chance to extend the use of geothermal resources to other areas. Although it is still in the nascent stage of development, it has high growth potential and is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period. This will have a positive impact on the geothermal drilling market growth for power generation during the forecast period.
“Apart from the development of EGS, other factors such as the growing application of machine learning techniques to geothermal exploration, rising demand for energy, increasing investments in geothermal energy projects, and the identification of huge untapped geothermal potential will contribute to the growth of the geothermal drilling market for power generation during the forecast period,” said a senior analyst at Technavio.
The EMEA region led the geothermal drilling market for power generation in 2018, followed by APAC and the Americas, respectively, owing to the rise in the adoption of renewable energy in the region.
Furthermore, the growing construction of geothermal drilling projects in economies including Turkey is expected to boost the market growth in EMEA.
APAC is expected to witness the fastest growth owing to the growing construction of power generation plants in Indonesia, New Zealand, Japan, and the Philippines.
The Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Cross River Command, said it has seized a truckload of suspected adulterated diesel containing 33,000 litres.
The State Commandant of the Corps, Danjuma Elisha, who disclosed this on in Calabar, said that one suspect was arrested in connection with the incident.Elisha explained that the truck was impounded on Tuesday at the ‘Technical Junction’ in Calabar.
“The suspect and the product were arrested for not having the valid papers to operate in the oil sector and at the same time, the product itself is suspected to be adulterated Automotive Gas Oil.
“This kind of act is against our laws and regulations; this is an economic sabotage. We expect people to do legitimate business, but this very business is illegal and that is why we arrested the truck,” he said.
He said that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) was carrying out a forensic analysis of the product.
According to him, after the analysis, the suspect will be prosecuted in court with a view to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to venture into such illegality.
Volkswagen is importing a batch of electric powered Golf models into Rwanda for a local ride-hailing service, establishing a bridgehead in the country that it hopes to expand to other nations as it seeks to increase market share globally.
Importing the vehicles into Rwanda, which sells itself to foreign investors on its reliable infrastructure, stability and relative ease of doing business, and where VW already assembles cars, is initially intended to test infrastructure and performance in the region’s climate.
“We’ve been investing more than $30 billion into new electric vehicles and platforms and the entire world is moving in that direction,” VW’s Africa boss Thomas Schaefer told Reuters. “The plan for Africa is that ultimately, we replace the whole fleet into electric.”
A Volkswagen e-Golf electric car is seen charging during its launch for use in its ride-hailing service in Kigali, Rwanda October 29, 2019. Photo: Reuters.
VW, which has a global target of producing 600,000 electric cars a year by 2022, is starting small in Kigali, importing 50 eGolf models in the first few months.
The vehicles – combustion-engine cars modified to run on electricity – will be integrated into the company’s app-driven “Move” service, launched last December.
German power equipment firm Siemens (SIEGn.DE) will build 15 charging stations in Kigali.
Rwanda has an installed power generation capacity of 286 MW the cars would mainly charge at night, when there is an excess of power. Unlike many African nations, Rwandan electricity is relatively reliable.
Rwanda’s Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said he hoped electric car use could expand, noting fuel products were Rwanda’s biggest import last year.
Schaefer acknowledged the high price of electric cars would not appeal to most African consumers, but said scaling up production and favourable government policy could help bring prices down.
“The Rwandan government is working on electric vehicle policy and if that policy favours electric cars over traditional, then that development can happen very fast,” Schaefer said.
The Republic of Ghana has inaugurated an Energy Sector Recovery Programme (ESRP) Steering Committee, comprising members across various sectors and ministries.
The inauguration of the ESRP Steering Committee is part of the initiation of the collaborative consultation process between government and each Independent Power Producer (IPP) and Gas Supplier (GS) in an effort to resolve energy issues in a manner that is sustainable for both Ghana and its partners.
“The purpose of the steering committee is to take responsibility for the consultation process with the IPPs and GSs over the coming months, with the objective of ensuring a sustainable energy partnership with each IPP and GS,” Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, who is the Ghana’s Minister for Finance said when he inaugurated the ESRP in Accra.
The inauguration is part of a decision made by the Energy Sector Recovery Task Force as mandated by Cabinet to ensure and oversee the implementation of the ESRP. The steering committee is expected to help implement the ESRP, which identifies key issues in the energy sector and proposes solutions.
Government, in July this year, announced its intention to rationalise the commercial agreements in the country’s energy sector, including re-assessing all take or pay contracts and imposing a moratorium on the signing of new power purchase agreements in the energy sector.
“The steering committee is of key importance for the future of Ghana’s energy sector and Ghana’s long-term sustainable development,” the Finance Minister noted.
“Government has been working hard to establish a long-term sustainable strategy for a competitive and dynamic energy sector where private investments can thrive, and the interests of the Ghanaian people and businesses continue to flourish,” he added.
Since August 2019, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Energy have been engaging with IPP and GS representatives in order to find solutions that result in a fair outcome for all stakeholders – both the Ghanaian people and investors. And the inclusive composition of the steering committee is expected to help comprehensively address the issues at hand.
Ghana’s installed capacity is almost double its peak demand, with an installed power generation capacity of 5,083 megawatt, a dependable capacity of 4,593 megawatt and a peak demand of around 2,700 megawatt.
Ghana has an installed power generation capacity of 5,083 MW, a dependable capacity of 4,593 MW and a peak demand of around 2,700 MW.
The Kudankulam nuclear power plant in India has been hacked using malware which is designed to extract data which has been linked to Lazarus Group, which is known to have ties to North Korean-backed outfits
India’s state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL) said malware had been found in the system, but that it was “isolated from the critical internal network”.
However, cybersecurity experts have disputed this claim, saying critical information had been compromised.
NPCIL runs 22 commercial nuclear reactors in the country, which can produce up to 6,780MW.
The hack was first identified by Virus Total a virus scanner site owned by Google parent company Alphabet. Virus Total flagged a data dump which was related to the India malware earlier this week.
City A.M. has contacted the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and the National Cyber Security Coordinator for comment.
“With NPCIL confirming the cyber-attack on Kudankulam, the National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) and NSA [National Security Agency] must address public concerns about this dangerous intrusion on India’s critical infrastructure,” Indian MP Shashi Tharoor said.
“Why has it taken so long for the government to create and fortify India’s cyber capabilities in order to punish, deter and repel such attacks?”
Emily Orton, co-founder of cybersecurity giant Darktrace, told City A.M. the attack was a “wake-up call” to the Indian government, but also had ramifications across the globe.
“We assume that our critical infrastructure is bulletproof and that it’s reliable…. The reality is that cyber threats mean those physical systems are now increasingly vulnerable.”
“The reality is today, you’re not going to keep the bad guy off your network. If an attacker really wants to get onto your system, they will find a way. So the new game is stopping the activity from escalating and catching it very early, a bit like your immune system catches a virus at a very early stage before you’re affected by it.”
Credible information available to energynewsafrica.com indicates that there was another attempt to hack down Ghana Grid Company’s transmission tower near its head office in Tema earlier this week.
Sources at GRIDCo told this portal that the perpetrators would have succeeded if security personnel providing surveillance of the area had not been vigilant.
According to the sources, the perpetrators, upon realising that they had been spotted by the security personnel around, took to their heels, leaving their equipment behind.
Some of the equipment retrieved included a hacksaw blade and one AK 47 rifle.
It would be recalled that some unidentified persons on Monday, 24th March, 2019, hacked down one of the pylons near GRIDCo’s head office in Tema.
The pylon was part of those which transmitted power from Karpower and Aksa to the national grid.
It is not clear what is the motive of those perpetrating these acts.
The incident is currently under investigation.
Mr Mould, who was one of the energy industry experts invited to speak on the topic, “Can Ghana avoid the oil curse?” called for the need to be a national consensus on the need to redefine the role of GNPC.
As at now, the role of GNPC is to represent the state in oil and gas exploration, development, production and sales activities, he indicated.
In a related development, the former GNPC Boss wants GNPC to be a facilitator to improve active local participation.
“GNPC must lead efforts to improve active local participation. As the National Oil Company, Government and the public should support GNPC to take increasing stake in oil blocks.
“This must be done strategically. GNPC must not take higher stake just for the sake of it. But the Corporation has a unique reservoir of knowledge on all the basins; more than any other entity in Ghana. What the Corporation needs is clear support to enable it grow and develop in the manner some of the most successful ones did it, like Petronas of Malaysia” he mentioned
The former GNPC Boss admonished that, although Ghana is promoting norms and electing leaders democratically, there needs to be a strengthening of the checks and balances in the parliamentary system in order to reduce corruption and the mismanagement of resources.
