Four Oil Companies With Terminated Contracts Owe Ghana US$1.88million

Four oil companies whose contracts were terminated last year are collectively owing Ghana USD1.88million by way of surface rent arrears, the 2021 report of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee has said.

The four companies are Swiss African Oil Company Limited – SWAOCO, UB Resources, Brittania U, and Sahara Energy Fields Ghana Limited.

Together, they account for about 73 percent of an outstanding Surface Rental of US$2.5million.

Surface rent refers to rent payable by a lessee for the surface area, leased to them for mining, at the rates prescribed by the Government.

According to PIAC’s 2021 report on petroleum revenue management, Surface Rental payments received in 2021 were US$826,815 compared with US$928,551 for 2020, indicating about an 11 percent decrease.

“According to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), this amount includes arrears payments to an amount of US$205,530 in respect of past years. As of the end of December 2021, Surface Rental Arrears had amounted to US$2.5million up from US$2.1million as of the end of 2020, representing a 22.22 percent increase,” the report stated.

As the contracts of these companies have been terminated, they are naturally going to be reluctant to pay the arrears they owe.

For instance, in its 2018 annual report, PIAC highlighted that Oranto/Stone Energy had not honoured an outstanding Surface Rental invoice of US$67,438 since February 2013.

The Ghana Revenue Authority was tasked to retrieve the arrears but GRA reported back that Oranto has been located in Angola, Chad and Mozambique, and has been contacted and yet no payment has been made.