This is still a rumor. I'm still trying to confirm this latest development in Ghana.

Do you have any info?

<<updated>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6764549.stm

@poster

Yes its real and live, after more than six years of searching from the wilderness they found abundant oil from formal name of goldcoast now to be called oilcoast.

If this is real, I'm not sure if this is a good news for Nigeria. Now we have competition from a contender that has been craving to replace Nigeria as the Giant of Africa for many years.
It's on, we really really need to get our sht together immediately or else we will be replaced.

I'm still searching for a confirmation.

How much oil did they really find? about 600million barrels of oil.

Nigeria extracts 2.2 million barrels a day. . . at that rate Ghana's oil will finish in 273 days.

it is true and am happy about it, the awareness of owning oil has done us more harm than good.

With competitition from our neighbours we will simply diversify if we must survive, besides that if Ghana is able to manage her resources like Bostawana and South Africa. We will understand that we are not so special afterall and that might get our leaders challenged.

I don't understand why some people view this as a competitive threat to Nigeria.Global oil demand will still outpace supply for the coming years.The oil find,600 million barrels,is not particularly significant.Its good news for Ghana as it reduces their import bill and good news for the regional economy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6764549.stm

I-man:

I don't understand why some people view this as a competitive threat to Nigeria.Global oil demand will still outpace supply for the coming years.The oil find,600 million barrels,is not particularly significant.Its good news for Ghana as it reduces their import bill and good news for the regional economy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6764549.stm

Sorry but the world is going green and I hope it does, it is inevitable that Nuclear energy will replace oil. So those who have oil should rather wake up.

Even with the world going green, it will never affect the value of oil in any way for the next 200 years; and that is the fact.

@ALL

PLEASE READ THIS:
On Monday, the British firm Tullow Oil announced the discovery of the equivalent of 600 million barrels of oil off the coast of Ghana, one of the biggest oil discoveries in Africa in recent times. But is this discovery a good or bad omen?

Even though the actual exploitation of the oil is still several years down the road, many in Ghana are already celebrating.  "We're going to really zoom, accelerate, and if everything works, which I pray will happen positively, you come back in five years, and you'll see that Ghana truly is the African tiger, in economic terms, for development."

This type of exhilaration could be accepted as normal if it were coming from ordinary innocent Ghanaians. Ordinary Nigerians, Cameroonians, Congolese, Chadians, Angolans, etc. manifested this type of elation when oil was discovered in their respective countries. Today, it is no secret that after years of oil exploitation, most of the petroleum revenue in these countries simply disappeared. It is my opinion that Kufuor's elation about this oil find is a little bit naive. As a seasoned politician and African Union (AU) chairman, he is better placed to know that oil and other minerals have contributed more to African backwardness than the want of resources.

 Now tell me who is afraid of Ghanaian Oil??

Good one BIGBOYLARY!

@BIGBOYLARY:

you just never know what tomorrow will bring.


@McKren:

Yes, it is a bad news for Nigeria.
I don't know why you keep on focusing on Nigerian's leaders of today. These folks will not be there forever, we should focus on tomorrow. And I think with competent and dedicated leaders, Nigerian oil will continue to make Nigeria the giant of Africa for many many years. The last thing we need is competition coming from our next door neighbor.

McKren:

Sorry but the world is going green and I hope it does, it is inevitable that Nuclear energy will replace oil. So those who have oil should rather wake up.

Is nuclear fuel green? inidustrialised countries are faced with serious problems relating to disposing nuclear waste. I'm sure many are aware that many countries secretly pay African countries to dump the waste there. Koko beach anyone?

Chernobyl? I bet an oil spill would have been 100 times better.

Oil has bred lazy and corrupt leaders in Nigeria. Ghana can come and take our oil if they want, that may be the fastest way of getting the hausa/fulani north off our backs for good.

Yes, it is a bad news for Nigeria.
I don't know why you keep on focusing on Nigerian's leaders of today. These folks will not be there forever, we should focus on tomorrow. And I think with competent and dedicated leaders, Nigerian oil will continue to make Nigeria the giant of Africa for many many years. The last thing we need is competition coming from our next door neighbor.

How is this competition?Demand for oil outstrips supply.Its not like Ghana is going to steal our customers.Also,the oil discovery, at 600 million barrels,is puny.It does not in any way rival Nigeria's huge resources.

At best they have oil to last them 2 yrs. Make the most use of it Ghana.

@ big b 1,

Let us learn from our lesson:
     You can see that these resources have fanned civil wars in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Chad. Coups and mercenary incursions have occurred in almost all resource-rich African countries.
     
    The corruption and graft that follows the discovery of these resources has destroyed the social fabric of many of these so-called oil or mineral producing African countries. Bad governance, weak and inefficient institutions, poor accountability, crime and parasitic state employees (now a hallmark of these countries) have all contributed to chase Africa's best brains out of the continent.
    There is no doubt that this brain drain is negatively affecting the competence and the commitment of those left behind to negotiate trade terms with foreign partners and administer these countries.

Posted by McKren:

Sorry but the world is going green and I hope it does, it is inevitable that Nuclear energy will replace oil. So those who have oil should rather wake up

The world is going green just because America said so? Please give me a break (rookie). America will downplay anything they can not effectively and efficiently produce.
Don't let anyone brainwash you, the only reason why going green has become very popular lately is because of the Middle East war. America knows that peace with these folks will not come around for many years. Hence, they've already started to introduce plan "B" (going green) to reduce their dependency on Oil. And it is obvious that the strategy is working very fine (as Mr Mckren has joined the going green group without deeply thinking about the main objective).

Do you know that going green will disable many undeveloped countries while it will futher empower the elite countries?
Do you know and understand the real repercussion of going green?

Some Ghanian politicians will be phoning up Swiss bankers at the moment What about the coastal people?They might demand,like MEND,that the oil revenue be spent in their region.Soon terms like "derivation" and "resource control" will become part of the lexicon of the Ghanaian political elite.

You forgot to add "zoning", "revenue sharing", "national cake". . . critical parts of the Nigerian lexicon.

@BIGBOYLARY:
It is absolutely unreasonable to disable our resource and sell our only pride just because few corrupt Nigerian knuckle heads have mismanaged the resource.
We should think positively and think about tomorrow. The few bad fruits will be gone one day. We should all be proud of our resource, stay together and discover a better way to make thing right in Nigeria.

This is oil that we are talking about, it isn't Crack or nuclear weapon.

the gulf of guinea has great potentials, who knows maybe oil will pop out in lake chad on the eve of judment day

Good for them, Ghana is waving goodbye to the dreary days of economic hardship that plagued them decades ago. Now, I am reading that some Nigerians are setting up roots in Ghana. Lets be happy for them, instead of exhibiting traces of jealousy on their fortune. It is not our manifest destiny to be the only oil producing country in West Africa.

Nigeria has 35 Billion Barrels Excluding Lake Chad
Ghana has 600 Million

I read the Article, a couple of days ago. Great News for our West African Brothers

And what does Nigeria have to show for, in the midst of such an abundance of these reservoir of wealth? Dilapidated structures in our tertiary education, non payment of salaries to civil servants, high rate of unemployment in the country, astronomical prices of gas, in an oil producing country. Even Kenya, where tourism is the mainstay of their economy has better structures than Nigeria.

My former neighbor, a Kenyan, told me of a relative who relocated to Kenya, before moving to Canada. I could not even contemplate such a move, because of the economic malaise in our country. Is the oil in Nigeria, really a blessing to the citizens?

Yea i heard it on the news too. Just hope they learn from nigeria and dont get too excited.

initiator:

Yea i heard it on the news too. Just hope they learn from nigeria and don't get too excited.

Don't worry about that. From experience, they have proven that "the black" man has some common sense! We are not dealing with Nigerians ok?

Ndipe:

And what does Nigeria have to show for, in the midst of such an abundance of these reservoir of wealth? Dilapidated structures in our tertiary education, non payment of salaries to civil servants, high rate of unemployment in the country, astronomical prices of gas, in an oil producing country. Even Kenya, where tourism is the mainstay of their economy has better structures than Nigeria.

My former neighbor, a Kenyan, told me of a relative who relocated to Kenya, before moving to Canada. I could not even contemplate such a move, because of the economic malaise in our country. Is the oil in Nigeria, really a blessing to the citizens?

It's not the end of the road, Naija will make it.

Ono oi ti Pari.

@ MILITIA
The only place oil has really worked in the world is norway. All over africa it's been a curse. Immediately oil was found in sao tome & principe, there was a coup. I dont wish Ghana same but black man or no black man, this is a sleepery road. I'mean for naija we been there done that.

Celebrations in Accra as Ghana strikes oil, donors pledge $6b fund

IT was celebration galore in Accra as Ghana joined the league of oil producing nations, as the black gold was struck 40 miles to sea in West Cape.
 
An elated President John Kuffour described the discovery as significant to the nation's economy.

Already, the country's development partners have pledged to support the country with $1.4 billion over the next four years, for its development projects

Kosmos Energy, an American oil exploration company, made the discovery, which is said to be of high quality and in commercial

quantities came 14 months after exploration.

``We are pleased that the first well in our multi-well West Africa exploration drilling program is a success,'' said James

Mussleman, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, said.

Mussleman who called on President Kuffour on Monday to announce the discovery did not give figures of the exact quantity

in the reserve. the oil was discovered after drilling 312 feet into the seabed.

Mussleman said Kosmos, which had signed a seven-year exploration agreement with Ghana, was looking forward to working with the government to develop the resource.

He said he was aware of the high expectations of Ghanaians and asked that they should give the company time to carry

out the operation.

Kuffour said the news should embolden and encourage all Ghanaians to be optimistic about the country's future as the

prospects were bright.

He urged Kosmos, which has also found oil in Equatorial Guinea, to quickly develop Ghana's reserve, this, he said, would enable the country, which has been grappling with energy problems, to become an oil producer.

``We pray that the company would be successful so that our country would not become a beggar in the energy sector anymore,'' he added.

The government, he noted, has since 2001 been making efforts to address the problem of energy and that consistent with this vision, the Board of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), which was then a general purpose entity was reconstituted.

The President said the discovery was a vindication of the good decision of ensuring that the GNPC concentrated on its core business operation.

Energy Minister Kofi Adda said five companies signed petroleum agreements with the country last year, and were currently engaged in various levels of exploration activities, some in deep waters.

The $5.7 billion development support from development partners would be between 2007 and 2010, according to a communiquŽ issued yesterday at the end of the two-day Ghana Consultative Group Annual Partnership Meeting in Accra.

The meeting brought together representatives of the development

partners, Ministers, Members of Parliament, private sector and civil society.

The communiquŽ said the government had confirmed that spending on the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Two (GPRS II) priority programs from domestic sources was expected to reach at least $5.8 billion over the next three years.

The development partners expressed satisfaction with Ghana's achievements in the area of poverty reduction and hoped that the coming years would see even stronger progress in meeting the aspirations of the people.

The partners, however, noted that significant challenges remained if Ghana was to consolidate its gains and further accelerate economic growth.

The Group would convene again in June 2008 to take stock of the evolving Ghana Partnership, it added.

President Kufuor challenged the development partners to do more to support the efforts towards attracting viable business investment inflow to boost the country's economy.

He noted that it was through a high inflow of profit-driven business investments that more job openings could be created to reduce poverty among the people.

Participants at the two-day meeting included representatives of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), EU and other development partners, Ministers of State, Members of Parliament (MPs), the private sector and civil society.


http://odili.net/news/source/2007/jun/21/22.html

Oil was discovered in Soa Tome and Principe. Did this affect Nigeria? I dont think so. We should not see this as competing with our brothers rather if properly harnessed like I know they will, Ghana will suceed in diversifyinh their economy. Unlike Nigeria we have had very stupid leaders and I doubt most would understand the implication of this development. They are not that clever

@initiator

true talk.

I'm happy for our Ghananian bros, I pray that their own oil will lubricate development, development, and more development.

Let not their oil turn them upside down like in naija, Angola, Algeria, Libya, CAR, etc.

Once African countries find oil, they stop developing, mentally, morally, and even politically.

I hope Ghana will lead the way for Africa to the contrary.

This is the house Nkrumah built!

Yes, it has been confirmed, there is oil in Ghana.

It is a wonderful news, it's time for our leaders to wake up quick and start utilizing our resource effectively to develop the nation or else the crown of the[b] Giant of Africa [/b] will be given to another country.

@all

Yes, at this time Ghana has 600 Million Barrels while Nigeria has 35 Billion Barrels, but keep in mind that the quantity doesn't matter if we, Nigerians have nothing to show for our billion barrels.
As I'm very happy for our African brothers, I also think that we should also be very careful on how to react to this latest news. One could never tell how this news will affect our already crumbled economy, today and also in future.