Black gold in Ghana: crude days for fishers and farmers?

Abstract

The relationship between the exploration, production, and development of black gold, the local economy, and the local environment and how that, in turn, relates to the social and labour conditions of food and fish producers is relatively understudied. Orthodox economists typically use the notion of "resource curse" which, being a macroeconomic frame, does not provide for variegated, simultaneous, and complex processes of accumulation, contradictions, and displacement at the local level. This paper examines such processes in the Western Region of Ghana, an oil frontier in Africa. It uses multiple data sources such as surveys and analyses the evidence within Harvey's framework of "accumulation by dispossession". While there seem to be no clear evidence of massive pollution and hence dispossession of the populations living off the land and the sea in the oil "zone", there are tell tales about crude days ahead, related to enclosures and expropriation. Institutional strengthening may help to resolve the impending tensions, but such reform is incapable of addressing systemic problems of growing imbalance in the power relations among the players in the oil industry.

Ocean and land grabbing in Ghana's offshore petroleum industry: From the agrarian question to the question of industrialization

“…What, in our opinion, is indisputable is that, like industrial fishing, the processes and mechanisms of the offshore oil/gas industry are inherently in conflict with the modes of the social (re)production of the coastal communities. The production of oil/gas requires the dispossession of the livelihood assets (land/ocean) of communities and dislocation from their socioecological environment (Obeng-Odoom, 2014b). Oil platforms, pipelines and floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels are installed on the ocean space that artisanal fishers previously used.…”

“…There are two dimensions to the natural resources grabbed: space and value. Space refers to parts of the ocean that the fishers used to fish and parts of the land peasants farm—bearing in mind some fishers farm and some peasants fish as well (Obeng‐Odoom, 2014b, p. 275). Value is both tangible‐material and intangible‐psycho‐ecological.…”

“…The gas projects linked to the offshore oil industry are engendering land‐control grabbing in our study area, a situation that has spawned a plethora of literature describing the negative impacts of the industry on coastal communities (see Abdul‐Kareem et al, 2021; Ackah‐Baidoo, 2013; Adjei & Overå, 2019; Adusah‐Karikari, 2015; Obeng‐Odoom, 2014a, 2014b; Otchere‐Darko & Ovadia, 2020; Oteng‐Ababio, 2018; Ovadia et al, 2020). The situation lends credence to the argument that development is not always progressive, but a rather painful, even awful process (Oya, 2010).…”

“…An estimated 300 acres of land across three Nzema communities, Atuabo, Anoche and Asemnda, have been compulsorily acquired by the state for the construction of the gas processing project (Adusah‐Karikari, 2015; Asamoah, 2014). Due to a lack of participation in the process, even farmers who were compensated for compulsory acquisition felt unfairly deprived of their property rights and viewed the compensation as inadequate given their loss of livelihood and of control over land that would otherwise have provided livelihood to future generations (Ablo & Asamoah, 2018, p. 191; Obeng‐Odoom, 2014b).…”

Bad Gains: Effects of Fossil Fuel Energy on Africa

“…Landowners continue to sell or rent their land to the highest bidders, including foreign expatriates. This has made it difficult for residents to get accommodation while some have been evicted for oil companies and their workers [49]. This fosters the migration of locals from their ancestral lands and sources of livelihood.…”