Title: Project finance and investment in the oil and gas industry in developing countries: a case study of Ghana

Authors: Efiba Vidda Senkyire Kwarteng; Yarhands Dissou Arthur; John Ayer

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK; CBM Surveys LTD, Chapel Hill, Takoradi, Ghana ' Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Education, Winneba, Kumasi-Campus, Ghana ' Department of Geomatic Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana

Abstract: Raising start-up and working capital are challenges faced by indigenous oil and gas entrepreneurs in many developing countries. The absence of sufficient collateral, good business plans, and high interest rates are barriers to acquiring bank loans in Ghana. The study was to identify possible avenues for funding oil and gas projects and challenges indigenous firms (SMEs) within the oil and gas value chain encounter in accessing funds. A questionnaire survey was performed with some banks and oil and gas service providing companies in Ghana. We showed that SMEs have lower success rate in accessing bank loans compared to well-established firms due to repayment risk. Therefore, financial institutions could resort to the project finance method to reduce such risk for projects within the oil and gas industry. We conclude that project finance is a viable avenue for SMEs to finance oil and gas projects in developing countries despite the associated bottlenecks.

Keywords: energy technology and policy; project finance model; developing countries; Ghana's oil and gas industry; small and medium scale enterprise; SMEs; indigenous entrepreneurs; Ghanaian economy; project finance strategies; working capital; start-up capital; interest rates; trust fund; barriers to financing oil and gas projects.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETP.2019.102657

International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, 2019 Vol.15 No.4, pp.373 - 395

Received: 20 Oct 2016
Accepted: 22 Jun 2017
Published online: 01 Oct 2019 *

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