1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Government of Ghana has submitted to Parliament a new Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Bill 2014, which seeks to govern Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry. Parliament has accordingly invited public memoranda for the consideration of the Bill. ACEP has already submitted a memorandum to the Energy and Mines Committee in Parliament. However, this public advert is to draw the attention of the Ghanaian public, all Parliamentarians and their constituents, to key governance issues that need to be addressed in the Bill.

The Bill in our view makes significant improvement over the current Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Law (PNDC Law 84), in many areas including in particular the governance of oil and gas resources. The Bill attempts to address some of the problems that dominate Ghana’s petroleum governance. The main features of petroleum governance include: