Jan. 10 (GIN) – As feared, Ghana’s oil facilities are being sold to the highest bidder following the discovery of the precious substance over the past decade. This week it was reported that a Floating Production Storage Offloading vessel – named Kwame Nkrumah – was sold to a consortium of oil dealers, mostly American.
The ship is valued at $750 million, the news agency reported,
Although Ghana has a piece of the Jubilee consortium, it has a mere 13% compared to 23% for partner Kosmos Energy, 23% for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation , 36% for Tullow Oil plc and 3% for Sabre Oil & Gas Holdings Ltd.
In a related development, Samuel Okudjato Ablakwa in the Information Ministry, acknowledged that Ghana’s debt payment between 2009 and 2011 (642 Ghana cedis) exceeded oil revenues of 506 million cedis. Analysts on the website Ghana Oil Info concluded: “the nation has not benefited from its oil find since all revenue it derived was used to compensate individuals and companies… Irrespective of how bright the oil industry looks, there will be no significant economic benefit to the local population if this situation persists.”
The Kwame Nkrumah can process 120,000 barrels of oil per day and has storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels. It was not known at press time whether the new owners would re-name the vessel.
Meanwhile, a feud is simmering between Ghana and neighbor Ivory Coast over that country’s claims to some of Ghana’s jubilee oil fields. A new maritime board mapped out by President Allasane Ouattara justifies the claim to the fields which hold about a billion-barrel discoveries.