Parliament has unanimously approved the 2017 work programme for the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC) to enable it undertake its planned activities.
GNPC is seeking to spend a total of GHs534.77million for the year,2017, a report on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament has revealed leaving a funding gap of GHs210.49m.
Officials informed the Committee that; “the funding gap will be financed by cash balance of US$68.03m brought forward from 2016 and US$95m GNPC’s cash collateral with Stanbic bank and Fidelity bank, when Litasco replaces GNPC’s Bank Guarantee under the 450MV Karpower Ship and a loan of US$47.39m.
GNPC’s operating expenditure also includes personnel emoluments, administrative capital, general expenses and maritime boundary special project.
An amount of US$324.28m is expected to be received by GNPC for the year, 2017 which consists of US$110.82m,US$172.90m and US$22.00m from the Jubilee,TEN and Sankofa Gye-Nyame Fields respectively.
Additional source of income would include US$4.13m as Training and Technology Grant and US$14.44m as miscellaneous sources from rentals, interest on short term investment and services to exploration.
One of the Corporation’s mainfocus is the Tema LNG project, which it plans to exercise the option of taking 20 percent equity in with an earmaked amount of US$21.25m.
The scope and scale of GNPC’s activities have been broadened with greater involvement in the gas/power sectors under its new Gas Aggregator role.
GNPC is therefore ensuring adequate capitalization of its midstream subsidiary,Ghana National Gas Company Ltd(GNGC) to effectively play the role of gas transportation from the onshore to the onshore.
As a result, an amount of US$10.00m has been earmarked to support GNGC in respect of capitalization.
On the financial performance of GNPC for 2016, the Corporation received an amount of US$88.50m for the year, which was made up of equity financing (share of development and production cost), 30percent share of net proceeds of Jubilee crude revenue and 30percent share of Jubilee Gas revenue.
The cash brought forward from the previous period(2015)was US$124.06m bringing the total cash available for 2016 to US$212.56m.