Ghana Strikes oil

[beyoku]

Fresh from tha BBC

Ghana's President John Kufuor says the discovery of the country's first major oil deposit could turn the West African country into an "African tiger".

"Even without oil, we are doing so well... With oil as a shot in the arm, we're going to fly," he told the BBC.

"My joy is that I'll go down in history as the president under whose watch oil was found to turn the economy of Ghana around for the better," he said.

The discovery of 600m barrels of light oil offshore was announced on Monday.

Reserves in the Mahogany exploration well were far greater than the 250m barrels that UK-based firm Tullow Oil had earlier forecast.

Bravo Ghana. I doubt that they will fight over it and lets hope its well managed. Some of the comments made by readers point give some great points.,

 

[ayabe]

What makes you doubt there will be any fighting?

Pretty much every country in Africa that has oil has a population that is suffering immensely because of it.

I too hope things work out well for them, but if history and current events are anything to go by, the everyday citizen is in for a rough ride.

 

[techs]

In Africa oil has been a curse to the countries that have it.

 

[beyoku]

Well Ghana is usally not a country that has had a lot of ethnic tension or ethnic divisions among its citizens and reigons.
In other areas there are usually places/people that want to be autonomous and want independance etc (Nigeria/Sudan)
These are usually issues that linger for YEARS (Sudan) and create even bigger problems only after oil is found.
I just dont see Ghana following this same path. Like many nations in Africa there are corruptions issues they will have to deal with.

 

[rudder]

In other news... in Ghana today there was an attempted coup by rebels funded by some warlord who wanted rights to the newly discoverd oil.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

African Tiger ala the Asian Tigers? <Laugh>. It's more likely that a civil war and genocide would break out first as various ethnic factions fight for control of the oil and the oil riches. Regardless, I'm sure the end result would be that a few people would become wealthy while the rest of the populace remains dirt poor as opposed to the development of an educated middle class.

 

[HombrePequeno]

I agree with beyoku. This probably won't lead to any fighting seeing as Ghana has quite a few other resources that are very valuable as well.

I'm not sure the money from this will be very well spent, however. While Ghana is making progress in privatization, there is still quite a bit of corruption.

 

[beyoku]

Originally posted by: WhipperSnapper

African Tiger ala the Asian Tigers? <Laugh>. It's more likely that a civil war and genocide would break out first as various ethnic factions fight for control of the oil and the oil riches. Regardless, I'm sure the end result would be that a few people would become wealthy while the rest of the populace remains dirt poor as opposed to the development of an educated middle class.

What is this comment based off? What you see on TV about Africa in general of specific info you know about Ghana? Ghana's economy is acutally quite stable compared to other African nations. Also, Ghana already has natural resources that nobody has been fighting for.

 

[piasabird]

African Governments that own oil are basically Fascists. They take all the money and then they dont give the poor people anything in return. Basically this is a Fascist attitude. The people in power take all the money and do not help the poor. If the oil company is owned by the government, then the people have a right to expect the profit to be spent on the common good. If this does not happen then the country is basically just run by thugs.

 

[lozina]

They should've kept that discovery secret until after they developed their nuclear missile deterrents

 

[mundane]

Originally posted by: techs
In Africa oil has been a curse to the countries that have it.

Right now the BCC world radio feed is interviewing a Ghanan official, trying to find out why they believe it will be any different for them than the other African nations.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: lozina
They should've kept that discovery secret until after they developed their nuclear missile deterrents

To nuke their own country when the oil creates a civil war?

 

[HombrePequeno]

Again, this more than likely won't create a civil war. Civil war in Africa generally tends to happen when there is only one very valuable natural resource in a country. That leads to a large concentration of wealth in the hands of a few people. Looking at Ghana's Gini Index, it's only 30 which means wealth is fairly evenly spread out. I don't see oil changing their Gini Index that much especially for an oil reserve that is only 600m barrels.

There are even success stories among countries that do only have one valuable resource like Botswana with diamonds. Sure, their wealth distribution is very uneven but because the government privatized the mines and gets a percentage of the revenue of diamond sales, it has been able to provide poverty reduction funds for the poorest of the country.

 

[theeedude]

If they don't turn it all over to Exxon-Mobil, I am sure the CIA will find a way to destabilize the country and fund a nice civil war until a nice dictator emerges to keep his people poor and let Americans keep the profits.

 

[magomago]

i'm sorry for them.

i wish the mid east didn't have oil - as it seems to be the source of their every single problem...

 

[miketheidiot]

luckily they don't have much.