Oil Exploration On The Voltain Basin In Ghana; The Communities Concerns?

The voltain basin is one of the four sedimentary basins in Ghana. The rest are the Tano-Cape Three Points Basin/Western Basin, The Saltpond Basin/Central Basin and the Accra-Keta Basin/Eastern Basin. These are all considered as prospective basins.

The Voltain Basin is an asymmetrical inland basin covering about 40% of Ghana continental landmass. It stretches to Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso.

The government of Ghana together with the GNPC has given license to an International Oil Company to begin exploration and the development of oil and gas on the Voltain Basin. This has brought about public outcry from communities around the project area, concerning the impact of the activity on their livelihoods. Stakeholder engagement is ongoing on resettlement of communities, since it is the first onshore drilling to be undertaken in Ghana. Constructive and extensive stakeholder consultation would engender confidence and trust among stakeholders through the entire project life span.

They draw reference to the Niger Delta in Nigeria and its attended problems. But, I must say their concerns are genuine since communities living in this area are impoverished and live in poverty, their farm land destroyed and not suitable for framing due to oil spillage and the flaring of gas.

The diagram above shows the Voltain sedimentary basin in Ghana (Fig 1.0)

Now, one unique feature about this basin is that, it is onshore. Therefore, any exploration and production activity would have significant impact on the communities, especially farmlands. The concerns of the communities are worthy of note, given the fact that the Niger Delta is a lesson to be learned by all. Oil production has been going on the Niger Delta, including Ogoni land since 1956. For much of that period, communities hosting oil-related facilities have suffered neglect from the petroleum exploration and production companies operating in the areas. This singular act of neglect has caused a lot of setbacks in these communities as sources of livelihood, income, and occupation have been destroyed and the ecosystem distorted. This has given rise to militants groups in this areas cutting pipelines and siphoning fuels. This makes the operations of international oil companies difficult and increases their operational cost.

It is imperative that we put in the necessary regulations and policies to avert the mistakes of the Niger Delta experience, by using the bottom-up approach in addressing all concerns from the communities. The development and production plan must be implemented by the IOCs, with the supervision of the ministry of Energy, to ensure the country and the communities benefit immensely from the resource.

Communities must be educated on the impact of oil spillage on farmlands and how this could be addressed, in order not to affect farming and productivity. The socio-economic benefits to be derived from this activity vary in the form of direct employment to those who are directly employed by companies doing the drilling, the indirect jobs, in terms of those employed by company rendering services to oil producing companies, an induced impact, in terms of those who get jobs as a result of increased spending from those in the direct and indirect jobs. Thus, the multiplier effect is huge for the communities. When the right approach is taken, the livelihoods of the communities would be impacted positively.

The state should ensure broader stakeholder consultation in order that the communities would benefit fully. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) should be done vigorously to the letter. It should as usual, include the baseline study, which would define and evaluates the impact on social and health of communities of the project area.

With regards to resettlements, mini communities should be built for people living in the project area with social amenities, such as schools, clinics and good drinking water. This would better serve their interest than giving them monetary compensation. After the decommissioning of the fields, the communities would still exist and be model settlements.

A study, I conducted in 2017,on the impact of oil and gas exploration and development on coastal communities, identified that, people who are educated with technical education are likely to benefit from oil related activities . Therefore, the communities should start preparing themselves in this direction, by getting the right skill set required in the oil sector to maximize the benefits fully when everything is set for the development and production of the resource

The production of oil and gas has positive and negative effects. Whereas nations have changed their economies by positively making the living conditions of their people better, a section of them still lives in severe poverty (Darkwa, 2010). The expectations of the members of the community are to make a standard of living better by enhancing social infrastructure and delivery of services. According to Akaabza (2010), improved standard of living may include jobs for the indigenous people, transfer of technical and commercial know-how, development of indigenous capacity and better infrastructure.

In the light of the above, it is important for IOCs to consider farming in the Voltain Basin since commercial and subsistence farming take place there. The acquisition of land would lead to socio economic displacement, which is the loss of income of those currently using it for harvesting and growing crops. All individuals living in the project area using land or natural resources for their livelihoods should be identified and compensated appropriately to restore them to their former economic status as part of the project impact and mitigation programmme. This project is expected to have no impact on fishing and fisheries, since it is an inland activity. In view of the aforementioned, the stakeholders should ensure that the right thing is done in relation to communities benefitting socio economically, so that Ghana, would have become a model in the extractive sector. We are better off as a nation developing our natural resources responsibly for socio economic development than leaving them underground.

Writer: David A Alemzero
MSc. Economics (Energy and natural resource economics), BSc Marketing