Regional News of Monday, 21 July 2008

Source: GNA

Government urged to revisit oil exploration in Sene District

Kumasi, July 21, GNA - A call has been made to the government and other oil prospecting companies operating in the country to revisit oil exploration at Premoase in the Sene District that was abandoned over 31 years ago.

Mr. Jones Abronye, a lecturer at the Sunyani Polytechnic, told the GNA in an interview that between July and October 1977, a team of oil explorers from Shell Nigeria Ltd discovered oil deposits at Premoase. He said the company folded up and left without leaving any document on the project.

Mr. Abronye appealed to President John Agyekum Kufuor to send experts to the site to ascertain the viability of the project.

He said the nation's oil exploration was only in the sea and appealed to explorers to move to inland areas where they could find oil.

He said there were also large quantities of lime deposits in the district that could be used for the production of cement and paint and invited both local and international investors to explore those resources.

Mr. Abronye said the district is the largest in the region but the most deprived because its natural resources have yet not been tapped, citing for instance large acreages of arable land for agriculture and tourist attractions on islands in the Volta Lake.