PRESS RELEASE- RE: GONDWANA IN TALKS OVER GHANA BLOCK
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- Created on Thursday, 17 April 2014 08:35
The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum’s attention has been drawn to false publications in the March 19 and 20, 2014 edition of the Offshore Energy Today and Ghana Oil Club daily news highlight respectively relating to the above subject. The article claims to portray that Miura Petroleum Limited, a subsidiary of Gondwana has been invited by the Ministry to negotiate exclusively for the award of the Offshore Cape Three Point South (OCTPS) block.
The Ministry wishes to state clearly and categorically that Miura Petroleum Limited has never been invited for any negotiation over any block in Ghana’s Sedimentary Basins. Miura Petroleum Limited on December 23, 2013 submitted an application for an exploration and production license over the OCTPS block, together with a cheque of US$10,000 covering the application fee. Unfortunately, at the time of submission, evaluation of earlier applications received for that block had been completed and a decision taken. The application was therefore not processed for formal evaluation.
Subsequently, the Ministry in a letter dated January 19, 2014 informed the applicant of the unavailability of their area of interest, and therefore requested the applicant to collect the cheque or to redirect the application to any available open block for consideration.
The Ministry’s records show that Miura Petroleum Limited never visited the data room to identify and review data on any available open block nor made a presentation of their company before submitting their application, as required by the process for acquiring a block in Ghana. To ensure that Miura Petroleum Limited comply with the basic requirement prior to submission of application, the Ministry had discussion with representatives of Miura Petroleum Limited. Based on the discussion, the Ministry in a letter dated March 5, 2014 invited them to do a presentation on their company and for further discussion on open blocks. The proposed discussion was to reiterate the unavailability of their area of interest, and to entreat them to visit the data room to select any available open block if interested
With respect to Gondwana, the alleged parent company of Miura, the Ministry has never had any engagements with them and therefore has no record of them.
The Ministry attention has also been drawn to a forged letter dated September 24, 2013 purported to have been written by the Hon. Minister to Miura Petroleum Limited in response to a purported letter dated September 3, 2013 written by Miura Petroleum Limited to the Ministry. We wish to put on record that no such letter has ever been written by the Ministry to Miura Petroleum Limited or any such letter received from Miura Petroleum Limited. The company therefore forged the Hon. Minister's signature, the Ministry's letterhead, official stamp and reference number. The case has therefore been referred to the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) for investigation.
The Ministry has therefore officially written to the publishers of the Offshore Energy Today and Ghana Oil Club requesting them to retract the article and publish the true state of the subject to the reading public to mitigate any misconception. The Ministry also wishes to entreat the general public to disregard the fraudulent publication.
Thank you.
SIGNED:
EDWARD ABAMBIRE BAWA
MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND PETROLEUM