The Ghana Maritime Authority Positioned to Play a crucial Role in
Developing Ghana’s Offshore Oil and Gas.
By Prof. Martin Tsamenyi
The recent discovery of offshore oil and gas in the western part of Ghana’s
continental shelf in commercial quantities has been welcomed by all sections
of the Ghanaian and international community. There is a great deal of
expectation
among
Ghanaians
that
this
discovery
and
the
resulting
commencement of exploitation, from the fourth quarter of 2010, will bring
significant economic benefits to Ghana.
At the same time, however, offshore oil and gas exploitation and development
comes with enormous responsibilities and challenges. One of the most critical
issues is how Ghana is going to manage the many security, safety and
environmental issues that will arise over the next decade. The basic issue is
that offshore oil and gas extraction involves a complex web of ships,
structures, installations and people, all interacting with each other. It also
takes place in a multiple use sea environment involving existing sea lanes for
commercial and military vessels, productive fishing grounds, with countless
numbers of fishing vessels a. All of these activities give rise to security, safety
and environmental protection considerations at a high level of intensity once
offshore production is in full swing.
Once petroleum production starts in Ghana, the number of offshore oil and gas
installations in the waters of Ghana will steadily grow and traffic in and out of
the area as well as Takoradi port will increase. Not least is the fact that the oil
fields are located in proximity to major coastal shipping lanes and productive
fishing grounds thereby increasing the chances of collisions between tankers,
fishing vessels, offshore platforms and so on. The possibilities for collision for
instance are infinite.
Unless properly managed, dissatisfaction by local
fishermen and shipping operators can become a major source of vulnerability.
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For Ghana and other stakeholders in the Ghanaian petroleum economy any
issues to do with
security or safety of the country’s offshore oil and gas
facilities has significant implications for security and economic well-being for
Ghana, its immediate neighbours, regional States and the wider international
community. This is particularly important given current and forecast pressures
in the international energy situation. Incidents in the Ghanaian offshore oil and
gas industry would cause further short-term oil and gas price instability; put
pressure on regional security arrangements; increase operating costs through
increased security requirements, workforce concerns and higher insurance
premiums; and provide adverse publicity, impacting negatively on public and
business confidence in the Ghana oil sector and those who operate, regulate
and protect it. More importantly it could negatively affect investment in the
country as a whole.
Additional challenge posed by Ghana’s offshore oil and gas development is the
deep water location of some of the fields. Whilst this means that there is
insulation from community concerns to some degree, distance from shore and
deep water also pose difficulties for the authorities with respect to effectively
monitoring, policing and enforcing the regulatory regimes. Considerable
resources will have to be devoted to perform deepwater regulatory tasks.
These include establishment of facilities, logistics for enforcement, supply
vessels, training and maintaining the infrastructure.
The Ghana Maritime Authority and its offshore oil and gas roles
The Ghana Maritime Authority, established under the Ghana Maritime Authority
Act (Act 630) of 2002, is the Government Agency charged with the
responsibility of monitoring, regulating and coordinating maritime activities in
all Ghanaian waters and the maritime industry.
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In practical terms, the Authority is responsible for ensuring that the maritime
community has access to marine safety support services in the form of aids to
navigation, a distress and safety radio system and marine search and rescue
capability, prevention of pollution from ships, effective national oil-spill
response capability, and ship and port security.
The Ghana Maritime Authority is also responsible for the implementation of
Ghana’s international maritime obligations, arising from Ghana’s membership
and active participation in the work of the International Maritime Organization
(IMO) which is the competent and primary international organization on issues
to do with maritime security, safety and environmental protection generally
and in relation to offshore oil and gas development.
The Ghana Maritime Authority has specific roles and responsibilities in
contributing towards management of the complex process of offshore oil and
gas development. The essential point is that nearly all the infrastructure
required to produce offshore oil and gas come under various IMO regulatory
frameworks, including security, safety or environmental. Consequently they
become the responsibility of the Ghana Maritime Authority, which are the focal
points for the national implementation of all IMO instruments.
The IMO dimension is particularly important because as a member of the IMO,
Ghana is required, acting as flag State, a coastal State or a port State as the
case may be, to implement a range of IMO treaties, Codes, Guidelines,
Resolutions and generally recommended practices to ensure safety and security
of navigation, protection of seafarers and the preservation of the marine
environment. These requirements are implemented for Ghana by the GMA,
exercising functions granted to it under the Ghana Maritime Authority Act,
2002, Ghana Shipping Act, 2003, and the Ghana Maritime Security Act, 2004.
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Significant exploration activities are already taking place in Ghana’s waters,
using vessels called Mobile Offshore Drilling Units. These are large ships used in
the exploration phase of offshore oil and gas.
It is expected that oil and gas production will commence in late 2010, using
converted very large crude carriers called Floating Production, Storage and
Offloading vessels (FPSOs), several very large oil and gas tankers carrying oil
and gas from the FPSOs and a large number of supply vessels transporting
personnel, food, and other provisions to the platforms.
All of these activities give rise to security, safety and environmental
protection considerations at a high level of intensity.
Offshore oil and gas discovery and production in Ghana is bound to
fundamentally change the existing roles of functions of the Ghana Maritime
Authority. It also follows that the Authority will be one of the key government
Agencies with crucial roles to play in ensuring that Ghana achieves the best
economic outcome from offshore oil and gas, whilst at the same time
protecting the security of the platforms and installations used in the oil and gas
production, the safety of navigation for other ships, including fishing vessels
and protecting Ghana’s marine environment.
The major areas of new activity
for the Ghana Maritime Authority can be summarized as follows:
Navigation Safety
Navigational safety considerations are paramount in any offshore oil and gas
development. Offshore platforms can be a significant hazard to navigation.
Very often offshore platforms and merchant vessel traffic are in close proximity
in many areas. Many fishing vessels and small craft also often operate in the
vicinity of offshore platforms. Offshore oil and gas production will also result in
increase in maritime traffic to the installations, to Ghanaian ports and
generally in the vicinity of the oil fields, increasing the risk of collision and
other incidents of navigation.
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Aids to navigation
Additionally, the Ghana Maritime Authority is mandated by legislation to
provide, approve or supervise the provision of aids to navigation in Ghanaian
waters in order to facilitate safe and effective movement of maritime traffic
Offshore oil and gas development will give rise to additional maritime safety
responsibilities for the Ghana Maritime Authority. All the offshore oil and gas
terminals and installations will require aides to navigation. Offshore oil and gas
production will also result in increase in maritime traffic to the installations, to
Ghanaian ports and generally in the vicinity of the oil fields.
Managing Oil Spills
Offshore oil and gas development will increase Ghana’s vulnerability to major
oil spills, necessitating a national and regional response framework under the
International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness. Under the provisions of
this Convention, Ghana will be required to ensure that operators of offshore
units under their jurisdiction have oil pollution emergency plans. It will also be
necessary to acquire appropriate equipment and logistical support for marine oil spill
response in Ghanaian marine waters
Maritime Security Considerations
Offshore oil and gas development come with many associated maritime security
threats and concerns. A disturbing trend in recent years is the increase in
several reported pirate attacks on offshore oil installations. Other security
threats to offshore oil and gas installations include armed attacks, kidnapping
for ransom, hostage taking and international terrorism. Ensuring the security of
offshore oil and gas installations, productions process and transport system will
require the implementation of appropriate maritime security measures
established by the IMO.
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Capacity Building
To meet the new challenges and to position Ghana to achieve maximum
economic benefits from offshore oil and gas, there is also need to invest in
human capital and capacity building initiatives. Staff of the Ghana Maritime
Authority would need to be equipped with the necessary skills to handle every
aspect of offshore oil and gas development, including standard setting,
regulatory aspects, security and safety aspects and oil spills management.
The Way Forward
To position the Ministry of Transport and the Ghana transport sector to support
Ghana’s offshore oil and gas development, the Ministry of Transport, organized
a two day national conference at the Accra International Conference Centre
from 15-16 July 2009. The Conference established clearly that there is urgent
need for the development of a coordinated national response to the
development of Ghana’s offshore oil and gas.
In response to the outcomes and recommendations from the conference, the
Ghana Maritime Authority has initiated action to develop a Strategic Action
Plan which will set out an actions framework for the Ghana Maritime Authority
to support the Ministry of Transports overall policy direction on Ghana’s
offshore oil and gas development. It is envisaged that this Strategic Action Plan
will identify broad levels of specific actions involving a role by the Ghana
Maritime Authority which require implementation.
Many of these functions and activities will need to discharge by the Ghana
Maritime Authority in cooperation with the oil and gas industry and other
government agencies, including the Ghana Navy and the Ministry of
Environment. This will necessitate the negotiation and development of
appropriate Memoranda of Agreement with relevant agencies to ensure good
coordination and voidance of duplication and administrative inefficiency.
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