Publication: Ghana Policy Journal

Oil (or ‘black gold’) has the capacity to make and unmake nations, ensure prosperity or cause conflict. December 2010 will be remembered as when Ghana joined the league of oil-producing countries. As promising a step as it is, the question on the minds of many is: Can Ghana successfully manage its petroleum industry? Can the…

With the discovery of large commercial deposits of oil in Ghana in 2007 and first oil lifting in December 2010, Ghana joined the league of oil producing countries on the Gulf of Guinea coast. Ghana has since 2007 initiated efforts to review and improve its legislative framework for the petroleum activities and as well as…

Launched at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a global effort to end lack of transparency and accountability in the generation and use of extractive sector revenues to enhance national development and poverty reduction in the host countries. Ghana signed on to the initiative in 2003. The three…

Besides the anticipated “blessings” of enhanced prosperity, the commercial offshore production of oil and gas in Ghana raises concerns about the level of preparedness of the environmental protection of the coastal communities and habitat. In the fundamental petroleum policy for Ghana, government out-lined its commitment to promote sound and sustainable environmental practices in the management…

This paper has two key objectives. First, it seeks to estimate the impacts of oil production on Ghana’s economy using a computable general equilibrium model. Second, it proposes policies to mitigate the adverse impacts oil activities may have on various sectors of the economy. The results indicate that production from the Jubilee oil field could…

In mid-2010, the Ghanaian government introduced to Parliament two pieces of legislation that promised to be critical to the country’s efforts to transform its petroleum resources into an engine for national development. Despite being introduced at the same time, the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill (PMRB) and the Petroleum (Exploration and Production, E&P) Bill demonstrated vastly…

Ghana is poised to be one of the fastest growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa because of its emerging oil and gas industry. Yet, questions have arisen as to whether Ghana is getting its fair share of the reve-nues from exploiting its hydrocarbon potential. We review Ghana’s petroleum fiscal regime as of the year 2010, compare…

Ghana emerged as a new oil-producing economy in December 2010. This special issue of the Ghana Policy Journal, an annual publication of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Ghana, was initiated to bring together researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to address some of the pressing issues in a newly emerging petroleum producing economy. History has shown…

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Canada, under the Think Tank Initiative. An international journal on research dealing with policy-related issues concerning Ghana, and Ghana’s links and relationships with the rest of the world. The GPJ is the first public policy journal to be…