Stakeholders in the oil and gas sector as well as many Ghanaians are urging flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), vice president Mahamudu Bawumia, to consider the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas). Dr. Ben Asante as his running mate.
Appointing the Gas expert of over thirty years’ experience, they say, would enable Ghana gain a foothold and be able to tap into the emerging rear-field of petroleum, oil and gas without Ghana being shortchanged regarding negotiations and contract-signing, amongst others.
“Ghana now need experts, because if you look at our oil and gas sector for instance, it
is an emerging field but has proven to be the future. What stops the NPP flagbearer from bringing on an expert in that sector as his running mate, so that when he wins, we would be going into that sector with our best foots,” a member of an oil and gas forum who wants to remain anonymous told this paper yesterday in Accra.
The refrain for which expert to partner Dr. Bawumia seem to be on the Ghana Gas CEO because the internationally connected engineer in Oil and Gas is United State of America (USA) and Canada-trained and the Technical Director for Ghana’s first Gas Infrastructure Project.
He was responsible for Engineering, Construction and Operations. The initial specifications for the Gas Processing Plant, Offshore Pipeline and Onshore Pipeline were provided by Dr. Asante, working as a consultant to the GNPC gas team.
Dr. Ben Asante also developed the Gas Infrastructure Master Plan for Ghana working with the Energy Commission/Ministry of Energy in 2008. He is a co-author of a book on Natural Gas and LNG sponsored by the US Department of Energy. He was also the only African invited by the United Nations to give a presentation on Africa’s Energy Transition options at UNCTAD’s Experts Forum on Energy, in Geneva, in October, 2023.
Choosing the Asante Akyem Agogo born Dr. Ben K.D. Asante would signal a departure from the politician-economist partnership which has been the norm in our political space since the beginning of the fourth republic.
Expert experience in system planning, flow assurance and optimization of pipeline systems and processing facilities (facilities planning, operational control, system reliability, and associated economic analyses) towers him above both expert and non-expert.
The New Crusading GUIDE gathered that Dr. Asante has also provided engineering services, project management, and technical support for various projects throughout the world including in Abu Dhabi (UAE), Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and USA. He has also provided consulting services to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) and provided expert witness testimonies in gas custody transfer and gas quality cases in the US High courts.
In 2021, The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Gas Company (GhanaGas), Dr. Ben K. D. Asante was adjudged the second-best CEO of all state institutions.
Stay tuned
