Government has announced that it will soon lay the General Petroleum Regulations, which will provide further impetus for the provision of more information about the petroleum industry to Ghanaians.

The regulation when passed would make it possible for disclosure of beneficial ownership details of contractors and licensees as well as a one-stop-shop platform for accessing all economic and infrastructure data relating to the petroleum industry

Other relevant information to be disclosed under that regulation would include: licenses to install and operate facilities for transport, treatment and Storage of petroleum; permits to commence installation and operation of a facility for transport, treatment and storage of petroleum;

Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, Deputy Minister of Energy, who made the announcement at the opening of the third African Petroleum Data Management (APDM) workshop in Accra, explained that the rule would also require the disclosure of production or injection permits for Petroleum or water and flaring or venting authorisations for natural gas.

Organised by the Petroleum Commission in collaboration with Oil for Development (OfD) and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the three-day event was on the theme: “Embracing a Paradigm Shift in Data Management: An African Synergy Story.”

The meeting discussed technical issues regarding Petroleum Data Management, challenges facing the Petroleum sector in Africa, Compliance Standards and Data Reporting Standards, Pricing of Licensed Data, Procedures and Capacity building in Data Management.

Dr Amin also hinted that Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC) would soon publish its public disclosure framework to guide the disclosure of key economic and commercial data to improve transparency and advance the course of public accountability.

According to the Minister, the move had become necessary because citizens viewed national oil companies with suspicion and through that the GNPC hoped to provide leadership in demystifying the perception.

“The Government recognises that by the nature of the operations Of the Ghana National Oil Corporations, its commercial relationship with partners and the market involve public interest issues,” he said.

Touching on the licensing rounds, he said in accordance with the Petroleum Exploration & Production Act 2016, government was set to launch its first Licensing Rounds for Exploration and Production Rights of acreage in its Continental margin from the third quarter of 2018.

Dr Amin said for the first Licensing round, six of nine blocks demarcated within the Western Basin, would be allocated, and Data Management would play a strategic role in the whole exercise.

Mr Egbert Faibille, Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission, said Data Management was a fundamental pillar to the success of any business, particularly, the petroleum industry.

He said the oil and gas industry required very high investment and the risk of a bad decision based on poor data quality greatly increased business risk exposure, poor return on investment and ultimately, sub-optimal resource management.

The Chief Executive Officer said, “The Oil and Gas industry was about 70 per cent of the effort and time spent on deriving value from data was spent on data preparation.

“This quantum of time spent on data preparation does not afford Geoscientists and other Technical professionals, ample time to conduct interpretations and analyses that generate value for the petroleum business. This represents a worrying trend that effective Petroleum Data Management seeks to remediate, “he said.