Anadarko must settle $500 million tax obligation before they exit Ghana – KT Hammond

The Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa, Kwabena Tahiru Hammond, is demanding the payment of US$500 million dollars in tax revenue by petroleum firm Anardarko, before they exit the country.

The Energy Ministry is set to approve the sale of the Ghana operations of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, to one of the country’s oil production partners, French oil giant, TOTAL SA.

This comes after Anadarko sold its four operations in Africa — Algeria, South Africa, Mozambique and Ghana — to TOTAL SA, an upstream exploration and production company, for $8.8 billion last year.

But according to KT Hammond, the firm is adamant in settling what is due Ghana in terms of outstanding taxes. KT Hammond insists Anadarko must pay the amount.

“What the government is saying is very simple, pay our taxes and you can go. The asking price is small (US$500m), pay up and you can go; but they (Anadarko) say they will not pay. I have their letters indicating that they will not pay.”

“I think in one of the African countries they paid them the taxes they owed and paid Chevron too. By our calculations they benefited to the tune of US$4.4bn over the period that they have been here,” Mr. Hammond said.

“Anadarko has been making one million dollars per day since they came into this country about thirteen years ago. They have made so much and now they going out, give us one year out of the thirteen years; is that a very bad deal? They are complaining. They said they won’t pay,” he added.

The estimated value of US$4.4 billion translated into a daily gain of about US$1 million for the period that Anadarko had been in operation in Ghana.

Anadarko has been operating in the country since 2006, and until the sale of its operations last year, it owned 24.077 percent of the Jubilee Field, which is Ghana’s first oil field, and 17 percent of the Tweneboah-Enyera-Ntomme (TEN) project, an integrated oil and gas project.