<<Print>>

A former Deputy Minister of Energy who served under former President Kufour, Mr. K.T. Hammond, has stated that the sale of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Drill Ship was as a result of the incompetent strides by Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata. According to him, the move for the sale of the ship, was as a result of a suit Societe Generale filed against GNPC. His rebuttal was to address a press release by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum which claimed that the Drill Ship belonging to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, was sold on the 17th of July, 2001 during the administration of the New Patriotic Party. In an interview with OKAY FM, Hon. K.T. Hammond explained that �Mr Tsikata had involved himself and GNPC in some hedging transactions� which was unnecessary. According to him, Mr Tsikata gambled with Societe Generale over a report that said Ghana had gas and oil on the shores of Tano South although �we did not have it and this led to a debt to the tune of $47 million.� After Societe Generale realized that the deal couldn�t materialize, they applied to a UK court for the ship to be detained. Mr. K.T. Hammond disclosed that he traveled to the UK to deal with the lawsuit adding that in the end; the matter was settled out of court. �I K.T. Hammond came to this country (Ghana) with a cheque for $3.5 million payable to the government of Ghana which was later presented to the Ministry of Finance to be paid into government consolidated fund as part of proceeds because about close to 1 million had to be used to settle the other indebtedness of this same GNPC� he revealed. He also expressed shock that officials from the Ministry of Energy claim the ministry does not have any documents to that effect adding that GNPC should have the documents.