Annual Reports

The Abidjan Convention held a regional capacity building workshop for the countries of the Abidjan Convention in Ghana from the 19th – 21st November, 2018. The workshop was co-organized by the Abidjan Convention secretariat, Norwegian Oil for Development, London Convention secretariat and the OSPAR Commission. The 3-day session discussed the implementation of the additional protocol to the Abidjan Convention on Environmental Norms and Standards for Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration and Exploitation activities.

The Swiss African Oil Company Ltd. (S.W.A.O.C.O.) in Dec. 2014 acquired a license to operate the Keta Delta Block in partnership with GNPC and Pet Volta Investment Limited. As part of the process to acquire or obtain an environmental permit to start seismic activities within the block, SWAOCO has duly submitted a scoping report to the Environmental Protection Agency after consultations with the necessary stakeholders in the project area. Unfortunately, there have been agitations in these communities concerning the project. In response to this, the Agency activated the section 17 of the Environmental Assessment Regulations 1999, LI 1652 to allay the fears of the public. Public hearings were held from 4th-9th June, 2018 in the Ketu South District, Keta Municipal, South Tongu District and Ada East District. The final meeting was held at the Keta Municipal Assembly hall with all CSO’s and NGO’s Most of the issues raised bothered on; • The effects and benefits of the exploration activity on the communities (e.g. Oil spills, employment, etc.) • Measures to be put in place to prevent health, social, security and environmental challenges that come with such projects.

A group of prominent people from Keta area have organized themselves into the Ben Kwao Group. Their main objective is to follow-up on the issues arising from public hearing and to generally seek clarifications on issues of the oil and gas exploration. The group has held two meetings with the Agency and other stakeholders. The latest one was held in the conference room of the EPA on the 18th Sept 2018 with an agenda to develop a roadmap for the matters arising. Presentations were by the Ministry of Energy, Petroleum Commission and EPA. The group was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting as clarity was brought to bear on all issues of concern. They pledged to continue dialoguing with the Agency going forward, to ensure that seismic activities to be undertaken by Swiss Africa will not have negative impacts on the environment.

The Petroleum Department of the Environmental Protection Agency took part in the just ended Exercise OBANGAME EXPRESS which is an annual multinational maritime security exercise involving West and Central African navies as well as navies from North American, Latin America, North Africa and Europe. It also involves regional groupings such as ECOWAS, ECCAS and International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The 2019 edition of the exercise dubbed OBANGAME EXPRESS 2019 (OE 19) was hosted by Nigeria from 11-22 Mar 19. This exercise has been designed to involve stakeholders in Ghana’s maritime industry to ensure interoperability between maritime partners including the EPA, the Designated National Authority responsible for executing the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) on oil spill scenarios. On 18th March the EPA collaborated with Ghana Petroleum Mooring System (GPMS) and other relevant stakeholders to deploy available in-country resources for the oil spill scenario exercise with facilities that poses a risk to the country’s’ marine and coastal environment. The scenario took place at the Tema ports and harbour whiles the operation room was situated at the Oil Tanking office conference room in Tema Industrial area.

The Environmental Protection Agency led the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the offshore oil and gas sector (2013) to guide policy choices and transparent decision-making to ensure sustainable oil and gas development by the Government of Ghana. In view of this the EPA is developing the lessons learnt document report from the offshore oil and gas activities based on the issues and recommendations obtained from the SEA offshore 2013 report. This SEA lessons learnt report will feed into the SEA onshore report. A report writing session with relevant stakeholders was held at the Holy Trinity Spa and Health farm in Sogakope from 1-3 April 2019.

The Petroleum Department of EPA with support from Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth (GOGIG) is developing a new environmental sensitivity atlas covering marine, coastal and terrestrial environments for Ghana. This programme is to help broaden the sensitivity mapping initiatives beyond the coast line of Ghana to cover the four sedimentary basins (Western, Central, Eastern and Voltaian Basins). This forms part of Ghana’s preparedness to oil spills and the protection of sensitive areas from other pressures such as oil and gas developments within these basins and also to give effect to the environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs) prescribed under Schedule 5 of the environmental Assessment Regulations 1999, LI 1652.
A data review session with stakeholder institutions was organized from 3-5 April 2019 at the Holy Trinity Spa and Health Farm in Sogakope with participation from research institutions, GIS experts and mapping institutions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Norwegian Oil for Development programme is receiving assistance from the Norwegian Government to develop capacity in environmental management and related areas for better governance of the oil and gas sector.
As part of this assistance the Petroleum Department of EPA collaborated with the Norwegian Environment Agency to organize a workshop on communicating environmental impacts of oil and gas activities to CSOs/NGOs and the general public. This workshop was organised on 22-23 November 2018 at the EPA millennium conference room, Accra.