With Ghana on the verge of officially producing large commercial quantities of oil,
this is a legitimate question to pose. Many ordinary Ghanaians have placed their
trust in its leadership that oil revenue will rejuvenate the country's
fortunes like never before.

Again many see this as an opportunity for Ghana to transform into a first world
type economy.

However caution must be put to the wind because the blatant truth of the matter is
there is something the government doest not want to let out of the bag is that
"Ghana’s oil" is in fact not owned by Ghana but the old tale of the imperialist
who seems to be controlling the black gold.

This article seeks to explain to Ghanaians why we do not own the oil and why it
will not be the blessing many hope it would be.

Like our Gold that is controlled and owned by an unholy alliance of Western
interests, the TRUTH that Ghanaians NEED to know is that the oil is NOT OWNED by
the Government of Ghana but in essence the Western oil companies like Tullow oil,
Kosmos etc.


Even though the government and by extension the people of Ghana have a23.5% stake
in the Jubilee oil fields the brutal truth is that the Americans in the form of
Kosmos Energy have the lion's share.

This was clearly evident when Kosmos Energy wanted to sell its stake in the
Jubilee fields to another American company Exxon. They were able to do this
by going over the backs of the Government of Ghana with no consideration for
our national interest and thought that they could just railroad the government.

But give the government credit as they have stuck by their assertion that they
in the national interest of Ghana and this is the key, should have first right to buy Kosmos energy's share in the Jubilee fields.
Despite this however such is the power of western geo-politics especially when it comes to looking after their interests, my intelligence has reliably informed my that Kosmos Energy has succeeded in being able to offload its shares to fellow American company Exxon.

This is a hammer blow to Ghana’s sovereignty both politically and economically and should show to Ghanaians who is really in control if the oil.

However if this insidious act by the Americans was not enough, the Chinese
expressed their interest in the jubilee oil fields and as a result of this
Ghana is in the middle for an almighty scramble for its oil, leading to right
assertions that Ghana's oil is indeed not Ghana's but at the mercy of
Euro/American and Asian (Chinese) interests.

As an article in the June 2008 edition of the Foreign Policy magazine of the
dangerous American Council of Foreign Relations implied that this scramble as "
a race between the United States and China to secure (Ghana's) oil supplies.

So with this belief system in mind shouldn't one come to the conclusion that the honest reality is that the oil is not Ghana's and like the gold and all the other natural resources in Ghana belongs to the imperialist.

This article from the American Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) should not
be taken lightly as the CFR is a very important lobbying group that has a big influence on American foreign policy. This then should send warning signals to the people of Ghana that in fact there is an almighty tussle the oil that sits within our shores and Ghana will be the big loser.

Why?

Because under the US foreign policy and a report that was commissioned by the
Bush administration in 2002, the US knew that it could not depend on the middle-east (North- East Afrika) for its oil supplies and furthermore US intelligence informed the Bush administration that countries along the West coast of Afrika including Ghana has tens of billions of untapped crude oil worth tens of billions of dollars in commercial quantities.

In addition to this US intelligence also predicted by 2015 Afrika, Ghana included will supply the US with about 50% of its oil supply - hence the re-militarization of Afrika under the concept of AFRICOM that seeks to protect US commercial interests by any means necessary be it oil or any other commodity that the US needs to survive and now that it has lost its title as the World's biggest economy to China access to Afrika's oil becomes even more important.
This should prove to Ghanaians and Afrikan people alike the Imperialism/Colonialism NEVER went away with political independence but has just re-invented itself.

China

Over the last 15 years China has developed a rapid industrialization
programme that has seen it overtake Germany as the world's biggest exporter and
over take the United States as the World's largest economy. In order to maintain its position as the No.1 economy Chinese intelligence has informed Beijing that it amongst others needs Afrika's oil.


At the moment Afrika supplies 15% of China's oil, this is expected to double to
30% by 2015 - therefore one can see why countries like Ghana have been
targeted for its oil and why there is a tremendous scramble for Ghana's Black
gold.

The sad thing about this development is that our national interest has been
sold out to the interests of the West and potentially the Chinese who as I have
said time and time again want to re-colonize Afrika, this time to loot our
resources for their benefit and leave countries like Ghana the hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Again one can argue that and I have said this time and time again that we are economically enslaved to the whims and dictates of others enabling them to loot our resources with impunity.
They are able to do this because since we do not earn enough income from “our” resources we have to go to the likes of China and the US for “loans” and “financial assistance”.
When we get these “loans” and “financial assistance” from these countries what the people of Ghana and this includes the vast majority of the media whose job it is to inform Ghanaians, that there are certain conditions attached to these “loans” and “financial assistance” including having stakes in a country’s natural resources.

Therefore the people of Ghana have been lolled into a false sense of security
believing that they will benefit immensely from this oil find when the reality is that it is the West and possibly the Chinese who will benefit greatly from this.

This is further compounded by the percentage that Ghana will be getting from the
oil. The government so far has not been too transparent as to the exact
amount of percentage in royalty payments it will be receiving from the Black
gold.

In addition to this the Ghanaian public is not so sure as to the amount of money that the government will get from oil revenue in the form of actual receipts from sales of oil barrels on the market, exploration rights, royalty payments, and taxation.

This lack of transparency further underpins the caution that Ghanaians should
have in relation to the oil because before the above can be taken into the
equation, the revenue that will be repatriated to the West and possibly China
would first have to be taken into consideration.

Since the West and possibly China control the lion's share of the oil,
the bulk of the profits that will inevitably be made will leave the shores of
Ghana, leaving Ghana with relatively speaking peanuts.

If it really was Ghana’s oil why is the government only getting peanuts and not something in the region of 70% or even 30% whilst the West, in this case American and British oil companies and perhaps the Chinese taking the lion's share? Food for thought.