- Where is the $561m? Explorco under fire as money due the state remains unpaid
A fresh transparency storm is gathering around Ghana’s petroleum sector after the Public Interest and Accountability Committee flagged US$561.65 million in unaccounted revenues linked to Explorco, the exploration subsidiary of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, intensifying concerns over weak oversight within the country’s state oil architecture.
Presenting highlights of PIAC’s 2025 Annual Report, chairman Richard Ellimah said the amount, accumulated between 2022 and 2024, has still not been reconciled and transferred into the Petroleum Holding Fund, despite repeated calls for corrective action.
The finding is central to Ghana’s petroleum governance framework. Under the country’s oil revenue regime, petroleum receipts due the state are expected to flow into the Petroleum Holding Fund before distribution under the Petroleum Revenue Management Act. PIAC’s concern is that more than half a billion dollars tied to Explorco remains outside that framework, creating what is now shaping into one of the sector’s most serious accountability disputes in recent years.
The central question is no longer only whether the money is owed, but when it will be paid.
For now, PIAC’s latest presentation offers no firm payment timeline. Instead, the committee has issued a direct call for GNPC and Explorco to fully account for the funds and ensure their immediate transfer into the Petroleum Holding Fund. That language signals urgency, but also underlines a troubling reality: as of the committee’s latest review, there is still no publicly communicated schedule for settlement.
That uncertainty is likely to deepen unease across the sector, particularly at a moment when Ghana’s upstream industry is already under strain from falling crude production, weaker revenues, and reduced investor enthusiasm for mature assets.
GNPC itself is facing rising financial pressure. Its receipts fell by 61.55 percent in 2025 after a policy change reduced its share of net carried and participating interest from 30 percent to 15 percent. At the same time, the corporation could not meet its equity financing obligations in the TEN field, which led to cash call debt that could further affect field reinvestment and long-term production recovery.
Against that backdrop, the unresolved Explorco balance threatens to become more than an accounting issue. It risks becoming a broader test of whether Ghana’s national oil institutions are operating with the transparency and discipline required to sustain public trust.
PIAC’s concern is especially significant because Explorco sits within GNPC’s commercial structure, an area where the boundaries between corporate operations and public accountability can become blurred. Ellimah’s comments suggest that the committee believes those boundaries have become too opaque, exposing weaknesses in supervision, reconciliation, and reporting.
The implications are substantial. If revenues from a wholly state-owned petroleum vehicle can stay outside the Petroleum Holding Fund for years without being fully reconciled, confidence in the integrity of the entire revenue management chain could start to erode. Ghana’s petroleum framework has long been cited as one of the stronger transparency models on the continent. But the Explorco matter now threatens to expose a serious gap between statutory design and institutional practice.
PIAC’s directive leaves little room for ambiguity. GNPC and Explorco must account for the US$561.65 million and move the funds into the Petroleum Holding Fund. Until that happens, however, the question of timing remains unanswered.
And that unanswered question matters. At a time when petroleum revenues are falling and the state is pressured to maximise every dollar generated from its natural resources, delayed reconciliation is not merely a bookkeeping lapse. It is a fiscal and governance risk.
For Ghana, the issue is no longer just about recovering US$561.65 million. It is about whether the institutions entrusted with managing the country’s oil wealth can still command confidence when accountability gaps emerge from within their own structures.
