Petroleum revenue accruing to the state this year has hit USD340 million following the announcement of a third quarter receipt of USD64.91 million.

The third quarter receipt, published by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), plus USD236.76 million of petroleum revenue released for the first and second quarters of this year brings the total receipts from petroleum to about USD340million.

Of the total receipts, USD146.5 million representing 42.7% was transferred to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

The Ministry of Finance is yet to report on third-quarter transfers to the Ghana Petroleum Funds (GPF), which according to the Petroleum Revenue Management Act should receive any excess revenues above the quarterly Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) – the share of revenues spent directly on the annual budget.

The ABFA should be at most 70% of the oil revenues excluding transfers to GNPC, also known as the benchmark revenue.

In quarters where transfers are made to the GPF, it means the bench mark revenue fell short of the quarterly ABFA.

In the first half of the year, GHC 24 million and GHC 7.2 million were transferred into the Stabilization Fund and Heritage Fund respectively.

Bank of Ghana data show that the Ghana Petroleum Funds as at January 2012 had an opening book value of USD 54.8 million and USD 14.4 million, while the closing book value as at June 30, 2012 stood at USD 54.9 million and USD 14.44 million for the Stabilization Fund and Heritage Funds respectively.

The Stabilization Fund was established to cushion the impact on the annual budget and sustain public-expenditure capacity during periods of unanticipated petroleum revenue shortfalls, while the Heritage Fund is meant to ensure Ghana’s oil wealth benefits posterity.