Ghana's experience with decommissioning its first oil rig, the Mr Louie platform in the Saltpond oil field, has raised concerns about the environmental impact of future projects. In 2018, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) began pulling down the platform, which was billed as a moment of pride. However, the exercise is now estimated to have cost fishing communities around $200 million in damage to marine and fisheries resources. The high cost was attributed to the lack of involvement of the Fisheries Commission in the process.
The GNPC obtained all the necessary permits from the Petroleum Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before dismantling the Mr Louie platform. However, the report by MyJoyOnline found that the Fisheries Commission was not brought into the process, and no fisheries stock assessment was conducted before the work began. This meant that there was no baseline record of which species bred in the area, which were sensitive to disruption, or what sediment conditions would be needed for marine life to recover.
The financial toll of the Saltpond decommissioning project grew significantly as the scope of the cleanup expanded. Contaminated sediments, unplugged wells, and an unstable seabed were discovered, issues that a proper fisheries survey would have flagged from the outset. The report cited a $96 million contract awarded to Hans & Co, of which $89 million had been spent by 2024, with an additional $81 million reportedly being demanded. The field had earned Ghana roughly $10 million over 55 years of production.
Ghana is now preparing for a much larger decommissioning project, with a $704 million bill set aside for the Jubilee field alone. The project involves two floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels, over 100 kilometres of subsea flowlines and umbilicals, and more than 30 wellheads and manifolds sitting at around 1,200 metres depth. The field sits at the edge of Ghana's newly expanded 12-nautical-mile Inshore Exclusive Zone, a spawning ground for sardinella, mackerel, and anchovy.
The report by MyJoyOnline stresses that the engineering plan for the Jubilee decommissioning project cannot answer questions that are fundamentally biological. For example, whether a pipeline at 80 metres depth should be fully removed or left in place as an artificial reef, or where decommissioning vessels should anchor to avoid crushing demersal fish nests. The report outlines four specific functions that only the Fisheries Commission is equipped to perform, including issuing a Biological Clearance Certificate and producing a Fisheries Impact Overlay Map.
The stakes of the Jubilee decommissioning project go beyond engineering costs, with the report warning that poorly managed decommissioning risks hydrocarbon contamination in Ghana's fish stocks. This could jeopardise the country's roughly $425 million fish export market to Europe if residue is detected. For coastal communities along the Central and Western regions who depend on artisanal fishing, the Saltpond precedent shows how exclusion from planning can translate directly into lost livelihoods, damaged gear, and unsafe catches.
The report calls for a narrow, low-cost fix: amending the Petroleum (Decommissioning) Regulations so that no Decommissioning Plan can be approved by the Minister without a Fisheries Impact Assessment endorsed by the Fisheries Commission. The Jubilee fund is expected to be ready by 2036, but no date has been set for when actual decommissioning work on Jubilee, TEN, or Sankofa will begin.
Key points
- The Ghanaian government has set aside $704 million for the decommissioning of the Jubilee oil field.
- The decommissioning of the Saltpond oil rig is estimated to have cost fishing communities $200 million.
- The Fisheries Commission has a crucial role to play in ensuring the environmental safety of Ghana's decommissioning projects.
