SAPRA meets with Ghanian NPA

The South African Petroleum Retailers Association participated in the three day engagement programme with the delegation of experts from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) of the Republic of Ghana on a benchmark visit to South Africa from 12 to 14 February.

The visit by the delegation from Ghana is underpinned by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding Cooperation in the Oil and Gas Sectors, signed in 2011. The MoU provides for, among others, the exchange of visits by policy makers and technical experts responsible for the development and implementation of national oil and gas policies. This the third technical visit by the NPA to the South Africa/DoE since 2016.
The meeting was hosted by the National Department of Energy (DoE) at their offices in Pretoria.
The purpose of the NPA’s visit was to understand the licencing processes and regime in the petroleum downstream industry in South Africa.
The NPA was established in terms of Act of Parliament in 2005 to regulate, oversee and monitor activities in the downstream petroleum industry. The Ghanaian downstream sector is an onshore operation that consists of refining, distribution, and marketing of petroleum products.
 

The meeting with the delegation was co-chaired by Avishkar Nandkishore: Chief Director of Petroleum Licencing & Fuel Supply at the DoE and his Ghanaian counterpart, Daniel Addo: Director for Finance at the NPA.
The delegation of SAPRA was led by Vishal Premlall: Director of the South African Petroleum Retailers Association, supported by Viv Corinaldi. SAPRA shared on current industry dynamics, including new service station development dynamics, licensing regime, challenges facing petroleum retailers and future prospects.

 
The meeting also incorporated other stakeholders in the downstream industry including NERSA, Transnet pipeline and the FRA.
Currently Ghana has two oil fields in production – Jubilee field where FPSO Nkrumah (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) is located and salt pond. This follows the first discovery of oil in 2007 and initial production in 2010.
Earlier this year the country discovered an estimated 450-550 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in the Pecan field, 166 kilometres off Takaradi’s coast.