The Western African Nation of Ghana is seeking to move into oil and gas development by asking for a loan of 1.7-billion-dollars to purchase assets and to accelerate production in the region. This announcement has come as Exxon Mobil Corp pulled out of an offshore prospect in the Nations waters back in May. According to an article in World Oil the Ghanian Government announced, “The time has come for Ghanaians to “become masters of our own destiny when it comes to our oil and gas resources,” Charles Adu Boahen, Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, told Bloomberg by phone. “There will certainly be the demand for fossil fuels in countries outside of the West that will continue to use diesel- and petrol-fired cars and consume power generated from fossil fuels for the foreseeable future,” he said.” This purchase is a gamble for a country already saddled with a tremendous amount of national debt.
Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has made statements that if Ghana does not improve on its exploration efforts, it could be left with stranded assets which would further increase its public debt which is already 77.1% of its economic output. Ghana estimates that it will need as much as 1.3 billion dollars to buy stakes in the Tano/Cape Three Point’s asset run by Aker Energy as well as the South Tano Field operated by AGM petroleum. Ghana is taking a gamble on investing in exploration while the rest of the world is seeking to decarbonize. Ghana believes that there is an opportunity to supply fossil fuels outside of the western world and they want to be the ones to capitalize on it. Only time will tell if this costly gamble will provide huge returns or misfortune.
