Déjà vu: MILLS, BEWARE
…Kufuor was hoodwinked in similar Oil deal
SPECIAL REPORT: RICHMOND KEELSON
In that dire state of hopelessness, the President, members of his government and many Ghanaians might be basking in huge euphoria at the recent agreement reached between Ghana and the Island country of the Gulf of Guinea-Equatorial Guinea- for the supply of 65,000 barrels of crude oil daily. But TODAY insists that the deal is a déjà vu.
And perhaps what should engage the attention of the President is the inability of his predecessor John Agyekum Kufuor to implement a similar oil deal Ghana entered into with Malabo in 2004.
Then Ghanaian Energy Minister, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom and Mr. Pateur Micha Ondo, the Foreign Minister of Equatorial Guinea, who led the inter-ministerial negotiations, both expressed intense optimism about the agreement.
While the Ghanaian Minister said the agreement reached was “an opportunity to begin implementing issues on both sides (Ghana and Equatorial Guinea)”, his counterpart from Equatorial Guinea said “efforts should be made to implement whatever had taken place in the past”.
Yet after close to six years, there has been a dramatic full-cycle with fresh negotiations on the table relating to the same subject. The lull in the implementation of the 2004 agreement, TODAY discovered, was not the lack of faith and trust between the two countries in carrying to its conclusion the agreement reached, but a well-designed orchestration by some of his trusted aides which easily consumed the President.
With the obvious huge financial benefits, many Castle hangars-on who were not directly involved in the negotiations managed to counsel the President into believing that the chief negotiators had some financial benefits to gain from the Malabo oil lift.
The Malabo deal was considered a threat to the Savannah oil lift from Nigeria, where some top NPP members were believed to be benefitting.
At a point, it became a savvy ideological battle between the NPP and the CPP. Whereas some top NPP notch, who had kicked against the inclusion of a “Communist” Dr. Nduom in the NPP, saw the deal as a way of shoring up the political image of the CPP man, others undermined the process because they thought a highly sensitive issue like oil-lifting should have been brokered by an NPP person for political point-scoring.
And with the obvious cracks in the NDC, the magnificent stride made by the President in dealing with the nagging oil issue might as well be his Achilles Heel. By their gestures and pronouncements, it is not all NDC members who would want Prof. Mills to succeed and therefore pluses chalked so far are likely to be undermined by his adversaries. So it is not yet Uhuru, Mr. President.
Under the terms of the current arrangement, Equatorial Guinea is to supply Ghana with about 65,000 barrels of crude oil daily until the commercial production of the country's oil sometime in 2011. In return, Ghana is to help the Island country in the generation, distribution and maintenance of hydro- electric power projects in that country.
Similar considerations were contained in the Kufuor deal with the same country when then Minister of Energy, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, first started negotiations with Malabo on transfer of crude oil to Ghana. After successful negotiations, the Energy Minister accompanied then President Kufuor to Equatorial Guinea to firm up the deal on 31st May 2004.
Under the Nduom-led brokered agreement, Ghana negotiated for the supply of crude oil from Equatorial Guinea on concessionary terms. The agreement included Ghana's ability and capacity of crude oil supply that could be refined in Ghana for Equatorial Guinea.
Like the current negotiations, discussions at the meeting was expected to be forwarded to the governments of the two countries for their endorsements and would have been finalized during a Ghana-Equatorial Guinea Permanent Joint Commission for Co-operation meeting scheduled for Malabo on July 20- 22, 2004.
It was agreed that there should be a yearly meeting between officials of Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) and the Tema Oil Refinery and their counterparts in Malabo to determine the resources and experiences that could be shared.
It was envisaged that if the agreement was to become operational, Central and West Africa could produce one-third of the oil and gas needs of Africa within the first three years that the agreement would been operational.