Government has programmed earning US$1.1billion as petroleum revenues for next year.
The projected amount is made up of US$227.10million from Royalties; US$602.80million from the Carried and Participating Interest; US$249.60million in Corporate Income Tax; and US$1.10million from Surface Rentals.
Of this amount, he said, US$404.90million will be ceded to the NOC for its Equity Financing Cost, and share of the Net Carried and Participating Interest at US$84.80million; while US$473million will be allocated to the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA).
The Ghana Petroleum Funds (GPFs) are also expected to receive US$202.70million. The GPFs’ receipts will be distributed between the Ghana Stabilisation Fund – US$141.90million; and the Ghana Heritage Fund – US$60.80million.
This was revealed by the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, during his presentation of the 2019 Budget themed ‘A Stronger Economy for Jobs and Prosperity’ to Parliament yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Benchmark crude oil price for 2019 has been projected at US$66.76 per barrel in line with the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (Amendment), 2015, (PRMA, Act 893).
The gas price for 2019 is meanwhile projected at US$3.99 per MMBtu. The 2019 Benchmark Revenue crude oil output is 63.4 million barrels (173,764 barrels of oil per day).
The Finance Ministry requested permission to exclude gas revenues to the tune of US$181.80million from the projected petroleum revenues for 2019, “as we devise ways of getting Volta River Authority (VRA) to pay for the gas supplied it by Ghana Gas”.
As a measure to minimise the amount of gas produced in the SGN Field for power production, he also said government has decided to postpone extracting its share of the gas resource – Royalties, and Carried and Participating Interest (CAPI) – until such time that off-takers are found to consume the gas in-year.
“These are prudential measures and should not be misconstrued to mean that the ministry will not be pursuing the VRA’s gas bills, as required by the PRMA.”
Source : thebftonline.com
