PIAC cautions GNPC against giving new loans amidst $1.23bn outstanding loans
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has urged the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to intensify its efforts to recover outstanding loans provided to the government and its agencies.
According to PIAC’s 2023 Annual Report on Petroleum Revenue Management, GNPC has an outstanding loan and guarantees totaling $126.68 million out of an accumulated $318.09 million owed by the government and its agencies since 2011.
As of December 2023, the total debt owed to GNPC, including additional payments and guarantees, amounted to $1.23 billion.
In response to these figures, PIAC has advised GNPC to cease issuing new loans and guarantees until significant progress is made in recovering the existing debts. The report emphasized the need for GNPC to focus on loan recovery and for the government to refrain from borrowing from the corporation.
“GNPC needs to intensify its efforts to recover these loans and desist from issuing guarantees to SOEs. The Committee reiterates that the government should desist from taking loans from the Corporation,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s crude oil production continued its downward trend for the fourth consecutive year in 2023.
The PIAC report detailed that production fell from a peak of 71.44 million barrels in 2019 to 48.25 million barrels in 2023, marking an average annual decline of 9.2%.
Of the total oil produced in 2023, 63% was sourced from the Jubilee Fields, 23% from the SGN field, and 14% from the TEN fields. Specifically, production from the three fields was as follows: Jubilee produced 30.44 million barrels, TEN yielded 6.72 million barrels, and SGN accounted for 11.09 million barrels.
In terms of raw gas, a total of 255,171.97 million standard cubic feet (MMSCF) was produced, with the SGN field contributing 127,203.02 MMSCF, Jubilee 77,900.05 MMSCF, and TEN 50,068.90 MMSCF. The average price achieved by the Ghana Group for all three fields during the period was $78.067 per barrel.
To address the declining production, PIAC recommended that the government and relevant regulatory bodies take immediate action to reverse the trend in existing fields and ensure investments in untapped fields. These measures are essential to sustaining and boosting the country’s oil production capabilities.
The PIAC’s 2023 Annual Report fulfills its mandate under the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815), as amended by Act 893, to publish semi-annual and annual reports on the management of petroleum revenues.
