Ghana Brokers Oil Deal With Equatorial Guinea

President J.E.A. Mills.

A Petroleum deal under which Equatorial Guinea will supply Ghana with about 65,000 barrels of crude oil daily until the commercial production of oil in the country comes on line has been brokered by

The deal, struck between President Mills and his Equatorial Guinean counterpart in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, is the result of efforts by the Ghanaian leader to ease the country's problem of erratic supply of crude oil on the Ghanaian market.

It also marked the high point of the President’s three-day visit to the Central African country where he participated in the swearing in of President Theodore Nguema Mbasogo.

In return, Ghana is to support Equatorial Guinea in the generation, distribution and maintenance of hydro-power projects in that country.

Ghana will, in addition, support the agricultural sector of Equatorial Guinea in its bid to boost the production of food at reasonable prices for its people.

The Minister of Energy, Dr Joseph Oteng-Agyei, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that the deal was the outcome of a meeting between President Mills and President Nguema Mbasogo at the Presidential Palace in Bata.

According to Dr Oteng-Agyei, the Government of Equatorial Guinea had agreed to work out the technical details of the deal to facilitate the commencement of the supply of crude oil to Ghana.

When asked about the specific date for the commencement of the supply of the crude oil, the minister pointed out that the governments of the two countries had to fine-tune some procedural and legal requirements of the deal.

Prior to leaving Equatorial Guinea, President Mills met Ghanaians resident in that country and assured them that the government was correcting the distortions in the economy to attract Ghanaians living abroad to come home and contribute their quota towards the nation's development.

He said the government was aware that Ghanaians living abroad had acquired skills which they could place at the disposal of the development of the country.

President Mills said the government was often distressed about the maltreatment of some Ghanaians living abroad, adding that the only way to address the situation was to improve economic conditions at home.

He mentioned some of the interventions which the government had put in place to resolve the contradictions and remove the bottlenecks within the various parameters of the economy as the introduction of the Youth in Agriculture policy and subsidies on agricultural inputs.

He explained that the government had placed emphasis on the development of agriculture, since it held the key to the development of the country.

The President said it was the view of the government that the development of the agricultural sector would go a long way to encourage the people, especially the youth, to stay and work in the rural communities, instead of migrating to the urban areas in search of white-collar jobs.

President Mills briefed the gathering on the discovery of oil and gas in Ghana and said the government was committed to using revenue from the sector to ensure qualitative improvement in the social conditions of the vast majority of the people.