Salt Pond's $200M Warning: Why Ghana Cannot Afford To Exclude Fisheries Commission From Future Decommissioning

When Ghana removed its first oil rig without asking its fish farmers, it paid $200 million for a lesson. The lesson: you cannot restore the sea without those who know the sea. In 2018, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) began decommissioning the Mr. Louie platform in the Saltpond oil field Ghana's first-ever decommissioning exercise.

It was meant to be a proud moment of environmental responsibility. It became a textbook case of what happens when you decommission without the Fisheries Commission. As Ghana prepares for the biggest decommissioning bill in its history $704 million for Jubilee alone, plus TEN and Sankofa, Saltpond is the warning we cannot ignore.

The Saltpond Story: A Technical Success But A Biological Failure

By law, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation did what it was supposed to do. It obtained permits from Petroleum Commission and Environmental Protection Agency. It hired engineers, promised to return the marine ecosystem to its pre-licence condition. What it did not do was formally involve the Fisheries Commission. The result:

1. No Biological Baseline: Before decommissioning started, no fisheries stock assessment was done. There was no record of what fish bred there, what species were sensitive, what sediment chemistry would support recovery. Ghana National Petroleum Corporation could certify that steel was removed, but could not certify that fish could return.

2. Fishermen Became Afterthoughts: The restricted zone was declared, but artisanal fishers from Nkotomso and Saltpond were informed late, in English, without Chief Fishermen. Nets continued to snag on wellheads. Complaints of "oily fish" came to the Fisheries Commission which had no role in monitoring.

3. The Bill Exploded: Field that earned Ghana $10 million in 55 years is now costing close to $200 million to clean, $96m contract to Hans & Co, $89m spent by 2024, structure still there, plus $81m more demanded why? Because the scope kept changing, contaminated sediments, unplugged wells, unstable seabed issues. This, a fisheries environmental survey would have identified upfront. Saltpond was decommissioned as an engineering project but it should have been decommissioned as a fisheries restoration project as well.

What Future Decommissioning Will Look Like And Why It Will Be 100 Times Bigger

Jubilee is not Saltpond.

• Two (2) FPSOs100+km of subsea flowlines and umbilicals
• 30+ wellheads and manifolds at 1,200m depth
• Located directly on the edge of the newly expanded 12 nautical mile Inshore Exclusive Zone which is the spawning ground for sardinella, mackerel and anchovy that feed Ghana. TEN and Sankofa will follow.

Ghana now has $704 million in a Decommissioning Trust Fund at Bank of Ghana for Jubilee alone, to be ready by 2036. The engineering plan is to cut, lift and dispose. But engineering questions are not fisheries questions:

• Should a pipeline at 80m depth be fully removed destroying 10 years of coral growth that has become fish habitat or left as artificial reef?
• Should rock-dumping be allowed in a known shrimp breeding ground in July?
• Where should the decommissioning vessel anchor to avoid crushing demersal nests?

Petroleum engineers cannot answer these questions. The Fisheries Commission can with data from 20 years of trawl surveys, canoe frame surveys, and VMS tracks.

The Compelling Case: Four Functions Only Fisheries Commission Can Perform In Future Decommissioning

The Biological Clearance Certificate

Before decommissioning, Fisheries Commission must provide a Fish Habitat Baseline. After decommissioning, it must issue a Biological Restoration Certificate not just "steel removed" but "sediment clean for fish breeding, water TPH below 0.1ppm, fish tissue safe. "This protects Ghana from EU export bans. If Europe detects hydrocarbons in Ghana's fish because of poor decommissioning, our $425m export market collapses.

The Fisheries Impact Overlay Map

Fisheries Commission holds Ghana's only map of Critical Fish Habitats spawning grounds, migration corridors, upwelling zones. In future exercises, it must overlay decommissioning plans on this map to declare No-Go periods. Example: "No seabed disturbance in Cape Three Point Basin between June-August which is peak spawning of small pelagics." This costs government zero, but saves fish recruitment worth billions.

The Community Compliance Bridge

Decommissioning exclusion zones fail without Chief Fishermen. Under the Fisheries and Aquaculture 2025 (Act 1146), Chief Fishermen and Queen Fishmongers are now formally integrated into co-management. They are the only people fishers trust. In Saltpond, they were briefed after exclusion. In Jubilee, they must be briefed before, in Nzema and Fante, by Fisheries Commission extension officers. This ensures safety, reduces piracy of decommissioning equipment, and prevents clashes.

The Asset-to-Reef Conversion

International best practice (North Sea, Gulf of Mexico) shows full removal is not always best for fisheries. Some jackets increase fish biomass by 300%. Fisheries Commission, with University of Cape Coast and University of Ghana, can advise government which structures to convert to artificial reefs creating fishing grounds and dive tourism sites saving removal costs. That saves the Decommissioning Fund money.

We Ask Not For More Bureaucracy, Just Three Sentences In The Regulations

We are not asking for a new law but just asking for implementation of existing laws: Amend the Petroleum (Decommissioning) Regulations to state: "No Decommissioning Plan shall be approved by the Minister without (a) a Fisheries Impact Assessment endorsed by the Fisheries Commission, (b) a Navigation Safety Clearance by Ghana Maritime Authority, and (c) a post-decommissioning biological monitoring plan to be executed by Fisheries Commission." The cost to government with regards to this amendment in legislation is negligible if not zero.

Benefit to government: A defensible, internationally compliant decommissioning that protects food security, exports, and maritime safety.

Conclusion
Saltpond taught us that you can remove a rig and still leave a dead sea. The world is watching Ghana. When we decommission Jubilee in 2036, will we be able to stand before International Maritime Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization and the European Union and say: "We returned the sea cleaner, safer, and more productive than we found it? "We can only say that if the institution mandated to know whether the sea is productive, the Fisheries Commission certifies it. Future decommissioning must not repeat Saltpond's exclusion. Inclusion is not politics. It is science, it is food security, and it is value for money. Let the engineers remove the steel and let the Fisheries Commission bring back the fish.

Happy World Maritime Day.