The Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Hub Development Corporation Charles Owusu has charged Ghanaian businesses to consider forming partnerships and position themselves well for the various opportunities the emerging petroleum hub project has to offer.
According to him, such mergers have the potential of empowering local businesses to be able to raise the needed capital to invest in the industry, when the hub is completed.
Speaking in separate radio interviews in Takoradi Mr. Owusu was optimistic that the petroleum hub project has the potential to be the game changer for the Ghanaian economy, therefore the participation of local businesses is essential.
The hub upon completion is expected to increase Ghana’s GDP by about 70 percent and create jobs in excess of 780,000 with an estimated export tax of about $1.56 billion by 2030.
“We are aiming to make Ghana the energy provider for the African continent and not only that, the world at large would also consider us as a go-to country for petroleum products and this will have a huge impact on the local economy” he added.
Mr. Owusu, who is also a petroleum economist further noted with the all necessary regulatory processes completed and stakeholder consultations done with the host communities and all those who matter, the project will have a smooth take off.
“The MOU with the consortium was signed in December 2019 and the negotiation for the first phase took almost 2years, we have engaged our host communities on several occasions so we have really done some appreciable amount of work behind the scenes to get to this stage” he said.
He also revealed that, the Jomoro municipality was selected based on several factors including the depth of the sea which is between 16-27meters, a range which is above the international standards.
Adding that after the feasibility it was also realized that the project would not require lot of communities being displaced. “We want to develop Jomoro into a smart city and this could make Western Region the business hub of Ghana.
After the feasibility we realized we don’t need to displace a lot of the communities. In fact it was only 2-3 communities which would be affected.
A forth community was only added for futuristic purposes.” he said.
The project has been structured into three phases with the first phase starting in September 2024 which will see the clearing of the land, construction of drains and other civil works.
Then it will take a break in December as Ghana prepares for a major election and resume in March 2025 due to the Chinese holiday in February.
The hub when completed will cover a total land area of 20,000 acres and will contain 3 oil refineries with a capacity of 300,000 barrels each, 5 petrochemical plants to support the pharmaceuticals, agriculture, automobile and other industries.
Storage tanks with 10m cubic meters capacity and a jetty as well ancillaries.It is estimated that about 780,000 jobs will be created during the development phase and beyond with significant positive outlook on the economy.
There will be an official sod-cutting ceremony on Monday August 19, 2024 to commence the petroleum hub.
Source: myinfotoday.com
