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The Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, has defended Ghana's Local Content Legislation, saying it was crafted to provide certainty and transparent environment for investors to do business and stimulate more investments in the sector. He explained that the Local Lontent and Local Participation in Petroleum Activities regulations, 2013 (L.I2204) were to ensure that the natural resources of the country served the entire supply chain, so that local enterprises would help to propel the country's economic transformation. Value addition Addressing a section of the Ghanaian and US business community at a four-day Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, Mr Amissah-Arthur said "we need investors and partners who share our philosophy and goal of adding value to our resources and strengthening our local companies". He said the Local Content Law was deliberately crafted to engender local participation in the country�s major national heritage, otherwise it would be seen as alien to the people. Mr Amissah-Arthur allayed the fear of the investor community that the Local Content Law was a deliberate legislation passed to frustrate the investor community, saying that it was meant to give Ghana value for such critical resources, while guaranteeing investors the appropriate returns on their investment. Gas He said the gas aspect of the discovery would be a major enabler for the creation of key industries in the agricultural and petrochemical sectors. Mr Amissah-Arthur was hopeful that when the gas infrastructure project was done, it would help to end the disruptions in power supply. Opportunities The Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Kofi-Armah Buah, told the investors about the opportunities in the oil and gas industry in Ghana, and invited them to participate, particularly, in unexplored basins. He said the Jubilee Fields presently produced about 100,000 barrels per day, while it was estimated that the TEN project would bring on stream 80,000 barrels per day when it starts production. Mr Buah said a second FPSO was under construction to take care of additional production capacities envisaged very soon to enhance the country's status as an oil-producing country. He said the government had put in place an elaborate programme to leverage the potential of gas to generate power to stimulate economic growth, saying plans were underway to get independent power producers to assist the government to become a major power producer by 2017. He said since the Gulf of Guinea had become the major frontier for oil exploration, Ghana should position itself well to take advantage of the opportunities. GNPC Mr Alex Mould, the Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), took the investors through the opportunities available in the country as far as oil exploration was concerned. He made it clear that local content was �bad for bad business but good for good business� and charged the investors to seek real partners, invest in the people and indicate to the government that they had come to stay. "We need real investors not fronts," he warned, but gave an assurance that "we will do everything possible to provide a clear and level playing field for you to do business". The Ghana Business Forum, which was attended by some Members of Parliament, later engaged the business partners in discussions about business opportunities in Ghana.