Despite the initial production difficulties of Ghana's crude oil in the first two quarters of 2012, the government has generated a total of US$541.62million (GH¢979.32 million) from oil revenue.

Of the total oil lifting receipts of US$541.07 million (GH¢978.27 million), Royalties amounted to US$150.64 million (GH¢272.37 million) and the remaining US$390.43 million (GH¢705.91 million) represented the State's Carried and Participating Interest.

Other sources of petroleum receipts, namely, surface rentals and SOPCL royalties amounted to US$552,418 (GH¢1,044,290) bringing the total petroleum receipts to US$541.62million (GH¢979.32 million), Ghana's Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper has disclosed.

According to him, the total volume of crude oil produced in 2012 was 26,351,278 barrels representing an increase of 8.9 percent over the 2011 production levels.

He added that the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), a state-owned oil exploration firm lifted crude oil five times on behalf of the State amounting to 4,931,034 barrels yielding US$541.07 million (GH¢978.27 million), saying "the fiscal year 2012 experienced an improvement in production of crude oil amidst initial production difficulties in the first two quarters of the year".

Mr. Terkper, who delivered the 2013 Budget Statement and Economy Policy of the Government of Ghana recently, noted that oil revenues received in 2012 were allocated to the various allowable sources in accordance with the Petroleum Revenue Act (PRMA).

He stated: "Of the 2012 petroleum receipts of US$541.62 million (GH¢979.32 million), an amount of US$230.95 million (GH¢416.89 million) was transferred to GNPC comprising Equity Financing Cost of US$124.63 million (GH¢224.21 million), and GNPC's 40 percent share of net Carried and Participating Interest of US$106.32 million (GH¢192.68 million) in line with Section 7 of the PRMA".

The remaining amount of US$310.67 million (GH¢562.43 million) representing the Benchmark Revenue was distributed to the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and the Ghana Petroleum Funds (GPFs) in line with sections 11, 18, 19, and 23 of the PRMA.

An analysis of the allocation to ABFA in 2012 shows that a total amount of US$286.55 million (GH¢516.83 million) was allocated to ABFA in accordance with the PRMA against a projected ABFA of US$383.52 million (GH¢614.55million) for the year resulting in a shortfall of US$96.96 million (GH¢97.71 million), according to budget statement.

The Finance Minister explained that the main reasons for the shortfall in the 2012 ABFA allocation were the shortfall in production targets as well as the non-realization of corporate tax in 2012.

Mr. Terkper was quick to explain that: "of the total ABFA amount of GH¢516.83, an amount of GH¢273.07 million representing 52.8 per cent was spent on oil and gas infrastructure and amortization of loans in respect of such infrastructure whilst GH¢176.73million, representing 34.2 per cent was spent on Road and Other Infrastructure.

The remaining GH¢67.03 million (13 per cent) was spent on Agricultural Modernisation (GH¢42.09 million or 8.1 per cent) and Capacity Building (GH¢ 24.94 million or 4.8 per cent).

Consistent with Section 21(4) of the PRMA which requires that a minimum of seventy per cent of the ABFA be used for public investments, 76 per cent of the 2012 ABFA was spent on public investments and the remaining 24 per cent was spent on goods and services, he noted.