The Ghana Navy and the Ghana boundary commission has jointly received two commercial high speed state of the art monitoring drones from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, GNPC to aid its work in monitoring activities in securing the maritime boundaries of Ghana.
The high speed state of the art drones is aimed at assisting the Ghana Navy in their operations such as detecting and monitoring vessels remotely, Surveillance and tracking of suspicious activities, Monitor remote offshore or isolated sites, Monitor ‘Right of Way’ and ‘Secure’ zones, Monitor trespassing, and vandalism, Combat illegal debunkering, theft and piracy among others.
Presenting the drones to the Ghana Navy, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the GNPC, Benjamin Acolatse noted that, the drones will be very useful in protecting the marine ecosystem as it has proven to be cost-efficient, accurate, effective, and reliable.
He noted that Ghana’s national development leans very heavily on maritime activities and will continue to rely on it for future growth and expansion of our economy as well as the oil and gas sector.
“GNPC finds all our producing oil assets within the offshore/marine environment. This calls for more collaboration with the Ghana Navy and other stakeholders. I am happy to say that, so far, our partnership has been good, and we look forward to deepening the relationship, going forward”
Mr Acolatse said “with over eight billion dollars’ worth of hydrocarbons produced over the past twelve years accruing to the Ghana group, there has always been a need to collaborate with stakeholders to secure this rich resource area which continues to generate income for our country”
He continued that this has led to Government’s energy policy goal which is to sustainably develop and manage Ghana’s oil and gas resources in a transparent and environmentally responsible manner, for the benefit of every Ghanaian, now and in the future.
“Today GNPC is working actively with the Ghana Navy, Ghana Boundary Commission (GhBC), Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) amongst others to manage and secure all activities within our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) marine environment”
The Deputy CEO highlighted how GNPC is working with stakeholders, especially the Ghana Navy towards the decommissioning of the Saltpond oil field, which is Ghana’s First oil field.
The outgoing Flag Officer Commanding of the Eastern Naval Command, Commodore Emmanuel Ayesu Kwafo, noted that the drones will assist and enhance maritime security in the country by fighting piracy, smuggling, among others.
Mr Kwafo described the donation as timely due to the illegal activities on the country’s boundary borders.
“the drone will be used to provide regular and efficient assessment of Ghana’s maritime boundaries by providing intelligence, surveillance and important information”
The national coordinator of the Ghana Boundary Commission, Major General Emmanuel Kotia highlighted the collaboration of state institutions to protect the maritime boundaries of Ghana.
He mentioned that the Mandates of the Ghana Boundaries Commission as stipulated in ACT 795, is to negotiate, collabote with relevant security agencies to ensure the safety of Ghana’s maritime boundaries and to safeguard the security and territorial sovereignty of Ghana.
Major General Kotia said the drones will give the leeway to ensure that the maritime boundary is safe at all times.
“Over the years the Ghana Boundary Commission has cooperated with the GNPC on maritime issues. The GNPC’s continues support to the Ghana Boundary Commission has been quite useful since it has helped enormously in the discharge of its mandate and without the GNPC, the commission would have been lacking in the discharge of its key mandate.
He said the Commission seek to collaborate in future with the GNPC to look at exploration in the Volta Basin which have land boundary implications.
Major General Kotia appealed for more drones to enable it discharge its duties as the Commission seeks to explore some more areas next year.
He noted that the Commission in future will jointly organize maritime boundary inspection with the Ghana navy; at least as much as possible along the Eastern and the Western maritime domain with the maritime drones.
The aim he said is to always ensure the territorial sovereignty of Ghana is always secured.
