Deepwater Horizon spill leads to new safety measures…in the U.K.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - FSU Sampling Cruise - June 22, 2010. Photo courtesy Dr. Oscar Garcia / Florida State University.
I’ve been asking various officials in Ghana what they’re doing about regulation in light of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. I’m assured that the BP disaster is being studied. I hope to have an opportunity to ask similar questions to Tullow and other oil company executives sometime soon. In the meantime, I scan the trade press for news. Today, for instance, I found out that work is underway on a new well-capping device for the U.K.’s offshore industry. Continue reading . . .
Shit
Sewage dumping site, Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Shit.
That’s what this is and that’s all I could say when I saw it.
The “this” in question is the sewage of the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolitan area. Government trucks drive the stuff over here and dump it on to the beach just down the road from a fishing village.
Apparently kids in the village are getting all sorts of eye and ear infections and the fishmongers have to lie about where the fish comes from or no one will buy it. People say it smells like…shit. Continue reading . . .
Africa’s Missing Money
"The danger to world peace springs not from the action of those who seek to end neo-colonialism but from the inaction of those who allow it to continue." Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism, p. 259
Next time you read about some corrupt African leader looting his country, lining the pockets of his cronies, stashing millions in Swiss bank accounts, buying villas in Paris and penthouse apartments in New York, setting up his playboy son to run some excessively lucrative state enterprise or another while the people of said country live in abject poverty, hold your reaction. Before you sigh and bemoan Africa’s cultures of corruption, callous despots, and managerial ineptitude, stop and ask yourself what’s missing from the picture. Continue reading . . .
Offshore drilling: “systemic” safety problems?
Drilling rig, Port of Takoradi, Ghana. Photo by Christiane Badgley
How safe are Ghana’s offshore oil drilling operations? According to officials I’ve interviewed here so far, Ghana’s oil operations are safe, secure and pose no particular threats to people or the environment. An EPA official in Takoradi assured me that the waters off the coast of Ghana are much calmer than those in the Gulf of Mexico. He also reminded me that the Deepwater Horizon spill was due to human error and that Ghana is constantly verifying every aspect of the oil operations in order to avoid any mistakes. Spin. Of course. After all, what are officials going to tell me? That they’re worried? Continue reading . . .
Abuesi
Drying fish. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Imagine a place where fishing is the only game in town. Then imagine just how nervous the residents must be about offshore oil drilling.
The place is Abuesi, a small town at the water’s edge about 30 minutes down the road from Takoradi.
Abuesi, Western Region, Ghana. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Fish and oil
Fishmongers at Sekondi. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Fish and oil: What’s at stake?
Here in Ghana, oil is expected to account for about 5% of the GNP when production gets up to speed. The fishing industry also contributes nearly 5% to the GNP. The number of jobs for Ghanaians that the oil industry may create is still unknown, but there’s no mystery about fishing. Approximately one-fifth of Ghana’s population depends on fishing. That’s huge, but in the Western Region fishing communities have to accommodate the oil industry. The oil industry meanwhile doesn’t have to do anything for the fishermen. Continue reading . . .
Sekondi sunset
Sekondi sunset. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Sekondi kids. Photo by Christiane Badgley
We’re now in Sekondi-Takoradi, “Oil City.” Oil is in the news, but this place is all about fishing. Shooting along the Sekondi seafront at the end of the day, we were joined by a bunch of kids for an impromptu video workshop.
No man’s land
Football pitch. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Who cares about the environment?
The acrid smell of burning plastic wafts out from Accra’s vast e-waste dump known as “No man’s land.” The thick smoke crosses the Agbogbloshie market and the notorious “Sodom and Gomorrah” neighborhood where many of the dump’s workers live. Entering No man’s land the fumes are unbearable. Continue reading . . .
Accra bustle
Newsstand. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Kwame Nkrumah Circle. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Ghana for Christ. Photo by Christiane Badgley
Traffic, construction, commerce, road work, billboards, people on the move…Accra is bustling, but I still have a terrible internet connection.
Ghana dreaming…
“Ghana dreaming. That’s what you should call your story.” On a packed flight to Accra, I ended up by chance seated next to an American oil and gas professional who has been living in Ghana and working throughout the Gulf of Guinea for the past 15 years. We started chatting and I told him I was going to Ghana to report on the country’s new oil industry.
He wasn’t at all excited about Ghana’s entry into the petroleum club. This man looks at the oil industry in terms of job prospects and for him Ghana’s Jubilee field is a bust.
As he explained to me, deepwater drilling is a highly specialized operation; the equipment and materials arrive from outside the country, are installed by specialized expat crews and then provide virtually no business for local maintenance companies or jobs for oil workers.
For this freelance operator the idea that Ghana’s oil industry is going to create a business boom is no more than a pipe dream. Continue reading . . .
