Ghana’s oil industry is solid and formidable and attracting lots of investments across the world, the Member of Parliament for Dormaa East, Paul Apraku Twum Barimah has said.

Mr. Twum Barimah who worked in the oil industry before becoming MP therefore rubbished the claim by the minority in parliament about lack of investing confidence in the industry (upstream) due to the exit of ExxonMobil.

Speaking in an interview with the media, he urged the general public to ignore the propaganda by the Minority in Parliament, saying Ghanaians should have faith and confidence in President Akufo-Addo government to deliver and improve their wellbeing.

Paul Twum Barimah explained that there has been solid performance in Ghana’s upstream oil industry, despite the challenges.

According to him, the strong output at the oil fields [Jubilee and TEN] is aligned with the continuous increase in Ghana's total oil production, adding, the longer-term outlook for Ghana’s crude oil is positive, based on the expectation for continued field developments in the offshore basins

“Exxon Mobil existed based on their financial strategy it put in place after the covid-19 challenges. ‘It is therefore prioritizing fields where there is advantage of favourable cost environment while preserving value…that is why Exxon is moving on. It want to concentrate on areas where they are already doing production. Clearly, it’s based on the financial capacity and not Akuffo-Addo’s government”, he said. 

He quoted the CEO of Exxon Mobil, Darren Woods, saying ‘using the strength of our balance sheet to invest through the cycle is a key element of our strategy. We are taking advantage of a favourable cost environment and investing in advantaged projects – underpinned by the long-term fundamentals of growing demand. The strength of our portfolio and our financial capacity enable us to continuously evaluate our priorities and the pace of investments while preserving value, which is critical in current market conditions and near decade-low commodity prices and margins.”

‘NDC is always good at doing propaganda. They are known for spreading false information and false report to defame the president. They have tried this several times but it has not worked. I therefore urged Ghanaians to ignore them and rely on the president who is committed to the development of the country.  The economy is strong and solid and the oil sector is robust. I can assure you that Exxon Mobil will bounce back after the covid-19 pandemic has eased’, he noted.

Research has revealed that Ghana’s oil production would more than double over the next four years, thanks to new fields coming on stream.

New discoveries by Norwegian firm, Aker, on the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points block could help production rise from a little less than 200,000 barrels per day to about 420,000 barrels per day by 2023.

Aker is currently working on its $4.4 billion Pecan field, where it argues between 600,000 and one million barrels of oil can be found.