Ghana plans to buy back oil licences no one wants
Activists say the numbers don’t add up
IT WAS NOT meant to be this way. Ghana made its first big oil discovery only in 2007, a generation after its corruption-addled and environmentally damaged regional peers. But the expected bonanza of investment and revenue has failed to materialise. ExxonMobil, an oil company, quit this year without drilling a well. Total decided to pass altogether. Chinese firms have gone elsewhere. Now the nominally centre-right and pro-market government plans to step in and buy back the oilfields no one else wants.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Crude business”
Middle East & Africa August 14th 2021
From the August 14th 2021 edition
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