A group of civil society organizations have asked government to suspend the issuance of licenses for oil exploration until the new oil and gas exploration bill is passed. According to them the move is imperative if the country is to get the best deal in the contracts. Coordinator of the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, Mohammed Amin Adam told Joy Business awarding new contracts while the new bill is before Parliament will not be in the best interest of the country. He said, “because Ghana was previously considered a high risk zone or a grave yard, investors didn’t want to come and so we needed to give super attractive terms, now we have found oil Ghana is attractive, about 49 companies are applying to come to Ghana, and so there is no [reason] why we shouldn’t change our law,” he argued. He said the new bill before Parliament seeks to amend certain aspects of PNDC-Law 84 and “I am arguing that if we find PNDC Law 84 problematic which was used to sign agreements, why will we still use the same law to sign new agreements? Why won’t we wait until the new bill is passed into law and then we can use that get enhanced benefits for our country? He however added that a lot more work needs to be done on the current bill. Source: Joy Business/Ghana