A NATURAL resource is very often seen or regarded as a God-given material which, when exploited, should ordinarily contribute to increasing the stock of wealth of society and thereby help uplift the quality of life of many members of society.
While this may hold true in a good number of cases, the reverse may happen when the same resource is mishandled.
In our own environment, we have reaped the benefits accruing from the exploitation and sale of gold by way of its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — exports, foreign exchange earnings, etc.
On the contrary, we have also, on numerous occasions, had to contend with cyanide leaks, which have polluted and destroyed hitherto safe water bodies and aquatic life and devastated the environment which had supported vigorous agricultural activities.
We believe that the issue of how much benefit a resource can be to a society is a function of the degree of control exercised by that society in the exploitation and use of that resource and the effectiveness of regulatory bodies in the exercise of oversight responsibilities over the companies exploiting these natural resources, among others.
In the last quarter of this year, God willing, Ghana will commence the commercial exploitation and export of oil.
While preparations have been made to ensure safe, sound and efficient exploitation of the resource (and all is expected to be well in this regard), we nevertheless need to be very alert to the flip side of oil exploitation, especially as we are engaged in at our Jubilee field.
In making this point, we are very conscious of current events in the industry as they relate to the Gulf coast of the United States, where an oil well exploited by the oil giant, British Petroleum (BP), has leaked and continues to leak hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil.
This has imposed an environmental disaster of a huge magnitude on the Gulf states of the US with incalculable costs. The spillage is described by environmental experts as probably the worst in history.
Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a Deputy Minister of Information, has indicated that the government is drawing useful lessons from the Gulf oil leak and that this will help inform the crafting of a strategy and a response by the government to any such disaster if it ever occurs (see front page).
We are happy that the government and its regulatory agencies are not oblivious of the possibility of such occurrences and are, therefore, not resigned to living on sheer luck in the exploitation of our oil resources.
We are also happy about the assurance of the deputy minister that the hand of our regulatory bodies would be strengthened to, among other things, ensure that they hold the oil companies to strictly comply with the nation’s laws and that the supreme national interest is upheld and safeguarded at all times.
We believe it is our patriotic duty to support the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), as the regulatory body, to have a greater stake in the exploitation of the oil and the protection of the environment.
In so doing, we will derive optimum benefits from our oil and also ensure that in the unlikely event of a mishap, those who stand to derive the bigger benefits will also be alive to their responsibilities to ensure the return of environmental sanity.
We must stand firm and not yield to intimidation from any quarters.
Let the current Gulf coast disaster serve as a worthy watch for us in our dealings with the powerful multinational oil companies.
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