The Minister for Energy, Mr. Boakye Agyarko has given a 10year ultimatum to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) that supply petroleum products to the market and to other industries including the mining, construction and aviation industries to meet the minimum equity of 51% held by Ghanaians.
The sector minister added that henceforth, new entrants into the downstream petroleum industry particularly Oil Marketing Companies are required to be Ghanaian companies.
“A Ghanaian company in this case, is one with a minimum equity of 51% held by Ghanaians. Existing operators with majority foreign participation have up to 10 years to meet this requirement,” he posited.
He indicated that even though the new policy is to ensure that Ghanaian participation is consolidated without compromising our desire to attract foreign direct investment, government is developing a legislative instrument to give legal backing to this policy.
According to him, Cabinet recently approved the Ghanaian Local Content and Ghanaian Participation Policy for Ghana’s Petroleum Downstream, the equivalent of the Local Content Policy for the Petroleum Upstream.
Mr. Boakye Agyarko indicated that is part of efforts by government to conduct a review of some of our laws and regulations that govern the downstream petroleum industry including the National Petroleum Authority Act, Act (691).
The sector minister said this at the 2nd Edition of the Ghana International Petroleum Conference (GhipCon2018) in Accra under the theme, “Realising the Vision of a Petroleum Hub” at Kempinski Hotel.
He noted that Government is poised in shaping the structure and deployment of the infrastructure master plan for the realization of vision of a sub-regional petroleum hub.
The three day Conference is being attended by the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia including key stakeholders such as the Minister for Energy, Hon Boakye Agyarko; Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority, Hassan Tampuli; as well as the heads of Bulk Distribution Companies and Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
Source: CBOD News
