Economic Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Oil and Gas Sector in Ghana

Abstract

Abstract Historically, the petroleum industry has been a significant contributor to global economic growth. The drop in oil and gas demand, coupled with travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused a drop in global oil market prices. This has resulted in a drop in the output in the global economy. These drop-in output means that there were losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to evaluate and investigate the economic effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the oil and gas industry in Ghana. The evaluation was done using economic performance indicators such as GDP and Crude oil prices. In addition to this, a loss function-based algorithm was used to model the projected economic loss during this period. To demonstrate the model, data was collected from a study site and used in the model. The study is useful for decision making on the preparedness for future pandemics, especially in oil dependent countries.