Ghana Petroleum Fund yields $7m profit – report

The total net profit on the Ghana Petroleum Fund for January to September 2017 was $7.03 million, according to a report by the Ministry of Finance on the Petroleum Funds for the 2017 fiscal year.

Out of the total amount, the Ghana Heritage Fund contributed $5.20 million, compared to $4.04 million in 2016, while the Ghana Stabilization Fund contributed $1.83 million, compared to $0.65 million in 2016.

The report said in the first half of 2017, the nominal US Treasury yields eased from the highs recorded after the US election, as the bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act was unsuccessful in the face of political gridlock.

The report said the yield of the US 10-year Treasury note ended the first half of 2017 at 2.304 per cent, compared to 2.444 per cent at the end of the second half of 2016, while the yield of the two year note ended the first half of 2017 at 1.382 per cent, compared to 1.188 per cent at the end of the first half of 2016.

On the outlook for 2017, the report said the global economy was expected to grow at a pace of 3.4 per cent in 2017, up from 3.1 per cent in 2016.

It said growth forecast for the United Kingdom had been lowered from 2.0 per cent to 1.7 per cent for 2017, due to tepid performance of the UK economy and lack of clarity on ultimate economic impact of Brexit.

Touching on developments in the upstream petroleum sector in 2017, Mr Emil Addae, Production Engineer at Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, said crude oil prices have remained relatively stable, while output is increasing as a result of production from the new fields in 2017.

Mr Addae said the total petroleum receipts that are proceeds from liftings and other petroleum receipts as at September 2017 was $362.58 million dollars, which compared with the receipts of $172.92 million for the period in 2016.

He said the total amount transferred between January to September 2017 from petroleum liftings and related proceeds to the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) was $127.09 million.

Mr Addae said out of the total ABFA amount transferred, $6.92 million was allocated to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund in the first quarter of 2017.

On the way forward, Mr Michael Asare-Akonnor, an Economic Officer at the Ministry of Finance, said the final determination of the Ghana -Cote d’Ivoire maritime boundary dispute by International Tribunal for Law of the Sea on 23rd September 2017, expected that all the previously affected companies would resume normal operations to implement their work programmes under their respective petroleum agreement.

He said work was on-going for the drafting of the petroleum regulations to provide operational details for the Exploration and Production Act and explain how the Act is administered.

Mr Asare-Akonnor said the draft Petroleum Revenue Management Act Regulations was almost ready and would be laid in Parliament before the end of 2018.

Source: GNA

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