Takoradi, March 24, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama has said the government would complete all the legal processes for the drilling of oil and gas before the commencement of the commercial production of oil in November.

He said the Oil Management Revenue, local content and petroleum bills were currently receiving special attention at the cabinet level and would soon be presented to Parliament for approval in the next few months. "We are also making everything possible to plug all the loop-holes associated with the PNDC Oil Law and as soon as that is completed it will also be presented to Parliament for approval before the drilling commences." Vice President Mahama said this to journalists after touring the Tullow Jubilee oil field to have a first hand information on the activities of the company and to find out how their performance would impact on the development of the country.

He said the government would exhibit a high level of transparency in the oil and gas industry for the benefit and development of every Ghanaian and urged all companies engaged in the industry to adhere to all their agreements signed with the government to ensure a smooth take off at the end of this year.

The Vice President said Ghana was lucky to learn from the unfortunate mistakes of other oil producing countries such as Nigeria and Gabon and would adopt pragmatic measures that would avoid the replication of such mistakes in the country's oil and gas industry. He commended Tullow Oil Company for the "impressive performance" in putting everything in place for the commencement of oil drilling and appealed to all other companies engaged in the industry to comply with all laid down regulations.

The Vice President appealed to landlords in the Western Region against indiscriminate sale of land as that could have negative repercussions on the future of their people.

Mr. Dai Jones, President and General Manager of Tullow Ghana Limited, said his outfit had the state of the art technology to drill oil and gas in the area for the next 30 years.

He commended the government of Ghana for acting swiftly to ensure early exploitation of the products adding "this is the fastest exploitation after discovery in the world as most of the countries take not less than seven years to drill after discovery."