It has just been less than 48 hours since President Mahama turned the valve for the commercial production of oil from the TEN fields.

Billions of dollars are at stake with an estimated reserve of 300 million barrels. Many have called this Ghana’s second chance at getting it right.

When President John Mills turned the first valve in 2010 an out of date law passed in the 1980s governed the industry in terms of production and exploration.

This time, this second commercial production will be governed by a modern sophisticated law, the Petroleum Exploration and Production law passed by parliament just before they went on recess a couple of weeks ago.

Questions have been asked if this law is adequate to cure the many ills plaguing the sector and does it provide a guarantee that the oil from the TEN fields will be used for Ghana’s collective benefit.

The truth is all our president’s past and present have expressed that commitment to ensure a truly transparent sector well positioned to avoid the oil curse and now that Ghana has an additional billions coming in through the TEN fields, those commitments are perhaps more relevant today than ever before.

Connecting with Ghanaians to discuss the issue of whether the E and P law passed recently by parliament guarantees that all Ghanaians will a fair share of the oil wealth from TEN and the Jubilee Fields.

The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) Dr Mohammed Amin Adam said he is happy that the bill better protects Ghana, which was nonexistent before now.

Dr Adams added that the new bill is consistent with good governance noting that Ghana is doing better with the fiscal arrangement.

He explained the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) and Concession, which he said, have assumed a point of convergence in oil exploration agreements worldwide.

Debating on which system best suits Ghana, Dr Amin said what matters is how Ghana negotiates the terms in the fiscal arrangements. 

“I really would like to be contested why a PSA is superior to a Concession or what we now call a modern concession regime because I don’t see any argument to that effect,” Dr Amin.

However, a senior research officer in oil and gas at Ghana Institute of Governance and Security said he was not enthused with the oil deals as the finds as Ghana is shortchanged in most of the deals.

“I do not see the wisdom in how we are treating our natural resources, first, it was gold, and we are in the process of doing that to oil and gas,” Solomon Kwawkume said.

He argued that the $3.11 dollars is not a lot of money to him as an accountant because there are several deductions, which leaves Ghana with less.

The Vice Chair of the Mines and Energy Committee in Parliament, Adams Mutawakil who was on the programme said during the time of consideration, if any of the systems is used, it will arrive at the same conclusion.