Budget Analysis on The Upstream Oil and Gas Sector: Gaps, Red Flags and Implications

Budget Analysis on The Upstream Oil and Gas Sector: Gaps, Red Flags and Implications.

This publication by Reporting Oil and Gas, a project by Penplusbytes focuses on the upstream oil and gas sector of Ghana as contained in the  2018 Budget Statement and Economic Policy.

Notable among its findings include:

• An inconsistency in the figure provided for actual crude oil output for 2016 as per the figure stated in the 2017 budget  and actual output as per the Petroleum Revenue Distribution Reports (PRDR).
• Little allocation made to solve the educational infrastructure deficit as a result of implementing the Free SHS programme.
• 80% of promises in the 2017 budget relating to policies and projects in the upstream oil and gas sector not implemented as 30^th November,2017.

Among the recommendations by Reporting Oil and Gas (Penplusbytes) include:

• A call for regular and robust reconciliation processes which will lead to published bi-weekly and monthly reconciliation reports of outputs and liftings by all accountability partners to avert figure inconsistencies.
• Re-allocation of funds intended for the “1 district-1 factory” project from the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives to fund the infrastructure deficit caused by the implementation of the free SHS policy. Government is advised to leverage on high investor confidence in Ghana’s economy to woo investors and private businesses to fund  the “1 district-1 factory project”.
• A publication of an implementation, activity and a fund disbursement plan with timelines by the Ministry of Finance to guide the Minister for Energy  so as to help achieve a high percentage of budget promises.