Ghana’s oil boom:

Deep below the Gulf of Guinea lies the key to Ghana’s economic future.

After decades of casting jealous looks at its oil rich-neighbours, the taps of Ghana’s very own oil boom are about to open.

As the oil starts to flow, so, Ghanaians hope, will the money needed to move the country into the next economic league.

But as many oil-rich African nations have found, oil is as likely to be as much of a curse as a blessing.

Gold, cocoa and oil

Most countries would settle for an abundance in one lucrative natural commodity. Ghana can now boast quite a collection.

Having built an economy on its rich gold reserves, plentiful supply of timber and extensive cocoa plantations, the country will soon have a new resource to sell.

Ghana’s offshore oil wells are set to start pumping in 2010 with predictions that they could eventually produce some 10 billions barrels of oil.

And despite the fall in the price of and demand for oil during the global recession, the Ghanaian government remains confident that an oil windfall will deliver all that it has promised.

“In 10 years time Ghana will be a very prosperous nation,” says finance minister Kwabena Duffuor.

“We will be an oil exporter, doing very well in gold mining and with a strong financial sector – we will have a very buoyant economy’, he says.

Oil prosperity
To make the most of the new oil fields, the government has transformed the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) to ensure it can cope with the demands of oil extraction.

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By Mark Broad
Economics producer, Accra, Ghana

More @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8081717.stm