GNPC planning to make $195m losses this year – ACEP, IMANI
National Oil Company (NOC), the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is said to have programmed to make some $195m losses this year.
The programmed losses for this year, the country’s two widely recognised think tanks, ACEP and IMANI assert, will be from both the Corporation’s oil and gas businesses.
According to the think tanks, the GNPC has programmed for this year some $1.285bn in expenditure as against total receipts of some $1.090bn.
The programmed losses, ACEP and IMANI avers, are completely avoidable if the GNPC were to focus on its core business of exploration, development and production of the nation’s oil resources.
Components of the GNPC’s programmed expenditure for the year as revealed by ACEP and IMANI include a $52.35m Terminal Availability Fee for its LNG business with Tema LNG.
It also includes the acquisition of corporate offices and other landed assets for a total cost of $63.9m.
The GNPC further plans to spend over $35m on the acquisition of seismic data for the drilling of two conventional wells in the Voltaian Basin.
This is after the Corporation has spent close to $100m over the last 6 years, trying to acquire the same seismic data for the drilling of the two conventional wells.
ACEP and IMANI are of the view that, the continuous loss-making adventure of the Corporation threatens its sustainability and to a broader extent, the fiscal stability of the country, given the huge revenues the country obtains from the sector.
The two think tanks further note that, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Energy and the Parliament, and other supervisory agencies, are complicit in the loss-making adventure of the Corporation given their inability to restructure the Corporation to generate value rather than allow it to continue to make losses.
“While the Corporation is on this loss-making adventure, supervisory agencies of government, particularly the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Energy and Parliament, are grossly complicit in either directing or ‘playing ostrich’ with the operations of the Corporation
“In July 2022, Parliament approved GNPC’s work program for 2022, seven clear months into the financial year. The late approval of the Corporation’s spending has become normalized in recent years, exposing Parliament’s complicity in the poor management of the Corporation.
“In that work program, GNPC programmed to make losses of about US$195.25 million and yet got unanimous approval from Parliament without any clear direction on how the Corporation is restructured to generate value rather than the loss-making route,” ACEP and IMANI stated.
