The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has finally come to sobriety in the matter of its controversial decision to borrow and shell out a whopping US$1.6billion to buy two untested oilfields.
Dr. K.K. Sarpong, head of the GNPC on Friday admitted in a meeting with CSOs which have been raising issues with the move that the US$800million price that Norwegian giant, Aker Energy, is asking for its well is a bilk.
Dr. Sarpong said on the “Bilateral Meeting with the Alliance of CSOs” that the new price tag for the well which Aker had bought for US$113million less than two years ago is unjustified.
According to him, some variables went into the details that ought not to be included and that these items were responsible for beefing up the price.
Dr. K.K. Sarpong thanked the CSOs for raising their voices against the deal which led to introspection by GNPC that helped with the discovery that Aker’s scandalous asking price.
Interestingly, a few weeks ago, the same K.K. Sarpong had been passionately defending the decision to buy the wells, insulting the CSOs whom he is now praising as being ignorant.
He also sought to shift blame to Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, over the move to take a US$1.6billion loan to finance the controversial acquisition.
According to him, GNPC only provided technical assistance and that the Corporation is moving away from fossil fuel towards renewable energy.
However, contrary to earlier claims that GNPC had audited the financial numbers of Aker before agreeing on the price, the new narrative is that the Corporation is yet to conduct due diligence on the expenditures of Aker.
According to Dr. Sarpong, this due diligence will provide further insight into how the Corporation negotiates the final price of the asset.
On the CSO platform was Dr. Yao Graham of Third World Network, Yaw Kyei, a GNPC board member, Kofi Bentil of IMANI Ghana, Charles Abugre, Denis Gyeyir, Theo Acheampong, Benjamin Kweku Acolatse, Benjamin Boakye of African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Eric Pwadura and others.
Dr. Kwame Baah Nuakoh, moderated and Joe Dadzie, one of KK Sarpong’s deputies, who had earlier led similar discussions on the transaction, but assumed his boss’ contemptuous attitude, kept mute throughout last Friday’s interaction.