Business News of Thursday, 2 February 2012

Source: Daily Guide

Gov’t To Procure Oil Meters

Government will soon procure additional meters as back-up for the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Kwame Nkrumah at the Jubilee Oilfield to record accurate quantities of oil pumped from the wells.

The Minister for Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei disclosed this in Parliament yesterday while responding to a question posed by K. T. Hammond, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi-Asokwa, who sought to find out the state of the ultrasonic flow metre on the MV FPSO.

The Adansi-Asokwa MP, a former deputy minister for energy, was unhappy with the delay in answering the question, which according to him, was posed urgently to inquire about production of oil at Jubilee Oilfield at the time when the flow meter was malfunctioning.

Nonetheless, the Energy minister explained that the problem with the Ultra Sonic Metres of the FPSO had been rectified since August 2011.

According to Dr. Oteng-Adjei, during the period a traditional method of measuring the flow of the oil was carried out satisfactorily in the presence of representatives of the Ghana Standards Authority and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

A new metre, he indicated, had been built and the two which were on board the vessel had been calibrated, stressing that lessons had been learnt to deal with future problems.

Government, he stated, was committed to maximizing the benefits from the oil for in the interest of the country.

In another development, the Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Ebo Barton-Odro, moved the motion for the second reading of the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2011, Incorporated Private Partnership(Amendment) Bill 2011 and Registration of Business Names(Amendment)Bill 2011.

The object of the companies amendment bill is to facilitate electronic registration of companies and to incorporate on line filing, declaration and other transaction between companies and the general public, companies and regulatory agencies and officers of a company and the registrar.

The Incorporated Private Partnership Bill on the other hand is to enable transactions under the Incorporated Private Partnership Act, 1962 (Act 152) to be effected electronically as directed by the registrar.

This is to facilitate the e-Government project which includes the reengineering of the business processes by electronic means.

The object of the Registration of Business Names (Amendment) is to provide electronic transaction of business under the Registration of Business Act, 1962 (Act151).