The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), the body set up to monitor the utilisation of petroleum revenue in Ghana, has said that the most immediate effect of the decline in oil production in Ghana is a reduction of revenue from oil and gas production.
Although petroleum revenue on average constitutes about 7% of total Government revenue, Ghana is reliant on petroleum revenue as a major driver of economic growth.
In periods when crude prices are low and crude oil production consistently declines, this can lead to significant budget deficits from the revenue shortfall. This will make it challenging for the Government to fund essential services such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure projects, which slows down overall economic growth and development.
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A member of PIAC, Mr Constantine K.M Kudzedi said at the opening of a consultative workshop to address the declining crude oil production in Ghana, in Accra on Wednesday, October 16. said that in 2019, Ghana witnessed its peak in crude oil production since inception, recording a volume of 71,439,585 barrels from the initial production of about 1.1 million barrels in 2010 through to about 62 million barrels in 2018. This declined to 66,926,806 barrels in 2020, representing 6.3%.
Crude oil production further declined to 55,050,391, 51,756,481, and 48,247,036.61 barrels in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively, representing 17.75%, 5.98% and 6.78% respectively.
“The 2023 production figure represents the fourth consecutive year of decline in annual production volumes since 2010.
Over the last four years, the declining trend has sparked concerns about the future of Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry, and that if the challenges on the producing Fields if any culminating in this decline are not addressed, with new fields being brought on board or investments are attracted, then the sustainability of Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry will be adversely affected thereby jeopardizing the anticipated returns and appropriate share of the oil wealth to stake holders especially the state resource owner,” he said.
Source: 3news
