The Executive Director of Institute for Research and Policies (INSTEPR), Kwadwo N. Poku, is cautioning handlers of the country’s energy sector not to wilt under pressure over the supposed energy transition, which is being told in false narrative, to enter into risky ventures for Ghana.
“I have come to the realization that when people do not have innovative ideas and plan to change the lives of people, they look for every excuse with slogans and buzz phrases. For me the phrase ‘Energy Transition’ is like ‘Vision 2020’. In the 1990s, every political speech started with Vision 2020 and how Ghana will be a Middle-Income country by 2020. We are in 2021, we can all judge for ourselves if this Vision was achieved. Data shows that there is no such thing as the collapse of the Crude Oil Industry,” he posited.
Kwadwo N. Poku continued that the world crude Oil reserve is 1,700 billion barrels as at 2020 and if no new discoveries are made, it would last for about 45 years, which makes it impossible possible that the human population would survive without Crude Oil after 2046.
The INSTEPR boss is therefore urging government to position “Our economy to take advantage of the new transition, we should build a vibrant petrochemical industry to supply Africa under African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA). Smart money is going after smart ideas and as a nation we should innovate to be relevant 40 years from now.”
The Civil Society Organisation disclosed in a statement last Monday(published in page 8),that in the OECD countries, crude oil usage is segmented into On-Road, Electricity Generation, Petrochemical, Non-Road and others. The On-road use of crude oil extracts which is Petrol and Diesel only accounts for 35.23%. Aviation, Shipping, Petrochemical Industries, Electricity Generation and others make up the 64.77% usage of Crude Oil extracts. The reduction in the use of combustion engines as a result fewer Petrol and Diesel cars on the roads, does not mean ships will stop sailing and Planes will stop flying.
According to INSTEPR, the introduction of Electric Vehicles (EV) has not decreased the importance of Crude Oil but in fact increased the demand for Polymers and that “Electric Vehicles are made lighter than combustion engine cars, so less metals and more polymers. Current Vehicles have up to 40% of polymers while Electric Vehicle has up to 60%. Research shows that the electric vehicle (car) polymers market size is projected to grow from the estimated USD 4.1 billion in 2019 to USD 52.5 billion by 2024, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 67% during the forecast period.”
INSTEPR cited the 1st September 2021, announcement by Eni that it had discovered a major oil discovery in offshore Ivory Coast, a discovery which could contain as many as two billion barrels of oil and 51 million cubic meters of natural gas as an example that energy transition could after be a fiction.
Read the full unedited statement from INSTEPR on page 8.
