Ghana’s crude oil may not flow by the mid-2010 date announced by the two oil exploration companies.

The IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, an economic think-thank, served the warning adding that the expected revenue due the nation could also be considerably delayed.

London-based Tullow Oil and Kosmos Energy, two oil exploration companies drilling oil in Ghana have made announcements of more finds with several millions of barrels of crude assured.

Tullow after making one such announcement on Monday confirmed the June 2010 date for the outflow of a daily output of at least 120, 000 barrels.

But the economic think-tank IMANI - Ghana says such announcements may be raising too high the hopes of Ghanaians.

Bright Simons, a policy analyst at the centre said the current global financial crisis will make it difficult for such expectations to be translated into reality.

He pointed out that the worsening world economic order makes it difficult for companies to find the needed investments.

Mr Simons said with the prices of crude oil falling on the world market, the core revenue to be accrued would also be spiraling down, a situation which will not be in the best interest of the nation.

“And for the same reasons that oil prices are falling, most investors will be skeptical about investing in large production system because the oil prices are down, so their returns are likely to be affected.

“If you look at the combined effect of these factors, our feeling is that…Tullow will not be able to raise the money it requires to produce petroleum by the time lines that it has indicated,” he stated.

Meanwhile industry players have said Ghana could soon be hitting two billion barrels of oil reserves. That will make the country a top player in the exploration business in Africa.

Libya is known to have the greatest reserves in Africa, 39.1 billion barrels, followed by Nigeria, 35.9 billion, and Algeria, 11.4 billion.

Tullow announced a discovery of an estimated 800 million barrels of oil in the Deepwater Tano block at Cape Three Points following the 400 million barrels find by Kosmos Oil a little over two months ago.

And with exploration still ongoing, expectations are that Ghana could make further discoveries.


Story by Fiifi Koomson