Border dispute doesn’t distract us – Kosmos

KOSMOS Energy Ghana says it is not distracted by the raging maritime border dispute between Ghana and neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire as it continues to develop some of its oil blocks in the disputed area.

The company said once the International Criminal Court (ICC) has not restrained Ghana and the oil exploration and production companies that she licensed from working on the area “then the place belongs to Ghana.”

The Communications Manager of Kosmos Ghana, Mrs Ruth Adashie, made these remarks in an interaction with some journalists in Accra.

Her interaction formed part of an oil, gas and mining (OGM) training programme for the journalists. The programme is an initiative of the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) with Penplusbytes, an ICT journalism training institution, as the local partner.

Mrs Adashie said, the dispute “has not affected our work at all.”

If it had, she said “we would have laid down our tools and wait to see what government would say but that is not the case.

“Once the ICC has not put an injunction on Ghana, then what it means is that Ghana still owes that portion of the sea and we have no cause to worry,” she emphasised.

Cote d’Ivoire has been laying ownership claim to the billions of barrels of oil and cubic feet of gas reserves reportedly found in the deep waters near the coast of Ghana.

Although the border dispute had existed for a long time, it was reignited around 2010 – the year that Ghana made significant discoveries and also commenced commercial production of oil and gas within the disputed area and Jubilee Field respectively.

Seismic data from the Ghana National petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the regulator of the country’s upstream petroleum sector, currently show that the disputed area covers portions of the Jubilee Field, Tweneboa, Enyenra, the Owo discoveries, West Tano-1X find and the Deep water Tano Block, all found in the west coast of Ghana’s territorial waters.

GNPC had already allocated some of those blocks to some oil companies, including Kosmos, to explore and develop for commercial oil production.

Kosmos Energy’s largest stake in the country, the deep water Tano discovery, is located in the disputed area, according to Mrs Adashie.

Thus, with Cote d’Ivoire still pushing its ownership claim, indications were that oil exploration and production companies such as Kosmos that have blocks within the disputed area would be distracted from continuing to work on their blocks.

That is, however, not the case with Kosmos, said the company’s Communications Manager.

“To us at Kosmos, it is work as usual,” she said but admitted that it was the Ghana government that could say otherwise.

“Once government has not said anything, then we believe that the area is for Ghana,” she said.

Touching on the Jubilee Field where Kosmos is a partner, Mrs Adashie said her outfit was confident daily output would climb further after moving from 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) earlier this year to currently average at 83,000bpd.

Kosmos, she said was, however, not happy with the wide media publicity devoted to Tullow, the operator, on issues concerning the field.

“Tullow has been taking all the glory and the other partners are left in the dark,” she bemoaned, noting that “all we ask of is equal publicity be given to all of us.”  

'If I die, I die for gold, says galamsey operator

The risk of being killed by a collapsing pit is not enough to scare off James Yemouk alias Boutique from hunting for gold at Gbane in the Upper East region. Once he is alive and energetic, Boutique says his search for gold must continue. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare looks at his daily itinerary as a miner 

It has been more than five years now since 30-year-old James Yemouk alias Boutique fell in love with his current profession of skimming for gold in the belly of the earth at Gbane, a farming community in the newly created Talensi District in the Upper East region.

Although Boutique can attempt quantifying the value of his more than five-year toil beneath and on the earth, he told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that he has lost count of the number of people who died in his presence while chasing gold underground.

Death, he said no longer scares him and his colleagues engaged in galamsey activities at Obuasi, one of the mining sites in the Gbane community.

“A lot of our colleagues have died from collapsing pits here. I cannot tell the number but I know that death is now normal to all of us here,” he said in Taleng, the dialect of the Talensi people.

Boutique 'washing' crashed rocks for gold debris at the site

“We sometimes pull the dead aside and continue the work because the work itself is a ‘do and die affair,” Boutique added.

LEARNING THE TRICKS

Boutique is one of the young energetic folks from the district and beyond who have taken to the pursuit for gold using man-powered tools. Their areas of operation are normally within some gold reserve sites mostly found in low lying areas across the Talensi District, the region and the entire country.

There, the methods used in extracting the gold plated rocks from about 85 meters down the earth are rudimentary and man powered.

Except the underground drenching and blasting of hard rocks where diesel powered drenchers and blasters are sparsely used, Boutique said everything from digging on the surface to breaking hard rocks at about 60-85 meters down the earth is done using a pick axe, shovel, chisel, hammer and moil – a man-powered drill.

Given the destructive nature of their practice on the environment, the concessions of large scale miners and on their lives, various personalities and institutions have for long mounted pressure against them and their galamsey activities.

Less success has, however, been achieved as the practice continuous to rise.

Although dozens of Boutique’s colleagues have died attempting to scoop gold from the earth, nothing shows that the spate of illegal small scale mining, popularly referred to as ‘galamsey’, will ease soon.

The Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNASSM), the umbrella body of licenced small scale miners once galamsey operators, currently boasts of over 8,000 members nation-wide. The association’s General Secretary, Mr Oliver Rivers, recently told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in Accra that there are twice as many of its members presently engaged in illegal mining nation-wide.

A lin-up of basins of crashed gold-plated rocks ready for grinding 

More people are joining than exiting the job at Gbane, said Boutique who spends his day plotting strategies to use in scooping gold underground.

“When I first came here some five years ago, less people engaged in this activity. But now, the number is increasing and almost every young person wants to mine for gold. That is obvious because the prospects are good,” he said.

Recounting his first days in the business to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS at the site, Boutique who is married and a father of two, said “going down to mine for gold is like boarding a plane at first.

“It is scary at first, very dark and the temperature, abnormal. You often wonder if you will be able to come out again but once you return to earth from your first trip down, then you heave a sigh of relief and yearn to go down again.

“After two or more successful attempts, then everything become normal to you such that you even wish to be doing it more often,” he said smiling. 

REAPING THE GAINS  

According to Boutique, a daily hustle at the site can return “more than GHC1,500.

“You can also labour for nothing such that you will have to borrow to eat that day,” he added.

On the benefits of his job, Boutique said “because of the work, I have money and can eat whatever dish I desire.

“Whenever I get to the house, my children and siblings run to me and I am able to give them money for their school items and upkeep. That alone gladdens my heart,” he said soberly.

Thanks to his bravery and skill to descend crudely dug mine pits, Boutique added that he has been able to build and roof six mud houses for himself and his extended family.

In most parts of the Talensi District and other communities in the region, a zinc roofed house is an asset cherished by all, especially the young uneducated. Mud houses roofed by thatch are considered colonial and thus despised.

DYING FOR GOLD

Although Boutique admits the risks in his profession, he said he is not willing to stop as long as he is energetic.

At the site, energy is of essence as much of the job is manpowered. The guys there were tough in body and openly displayed their muscular shoulders and chests

On the issue of death, Boutique said “this is my job from which I eat.

“If I refuse to work, I will have to go begging and that is not good for a young man like me,” he added and disagreed that his previous job of carrying loads for people in return for money popularly known as ‘kayayei’ was better than the current.

“There is no money in kayayei yet people use to despise us a lot.

“Here, just 0.8 grams of the ore fetches about GHC60 to GHC80. That is a lot of money and could have been my one or two month’s earnings as a Kayayei person down south.

“The only thing with this job (galamsey) is the fear of being killed or injured but that is okay because if I die, I die looking for money which is the gold,” Boutique said laughing.

PREPARING FOR RETIREMENT

However prosperous the illegal gold mine business is, Boutique said he would not allow his children into it given the need to educate them.

“It is risky and unwise. People have been cheating me because of my illiteracy. I do not want that to happen to my children again,” he said.

Boutique also admitted that he would one day have to retire from the work as his energy cannot carry-on forever.

But before doing that he said he would have to find a permanent source of living for himself and his family of eight of which he is the bread winner.

Although Boutique admitted the need to regularise galamsey operations in the district, he said his current financial stand was not strong enough to start a joint process towards owing a concession.

He thus appealed to the government and other interested parties to help them with capital and implements as “most of us have fallen in love with the job.

“We do it with our hearts and if they help us, the business will improve and we will be able to mine more gold for the country,” he added.

Boutique is his 'off duty' mode

On his nickname, he said “it is because I only wear dresses bought from the boutique that is how come my friends call me Boutique.”

ABL lobbies for tax exemptions

THE Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) could soon brew cassava beer in the country if its negotiation with the government for tax exemptions is successful.

Cassava beer (currently brewed in South Africa by SAB Miller – ABL’s parent company) is a very exciting one to us and we will not mind brewing it in Ghana too,” the Managing Director, Mr Greg Metcalf, said in an interview.

The MD, however, said replicating the beer in the country “will depend on government’s support for it because at the end of the day, the product will have to be affordable to the final consumers.”

He spoke to the paper shortly after members of the International Finance and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) toured a 1,000 hector litre brewing plant that produces ABL’s latest brand of beer – the Chibuku Shake Shake.

Chibuku Shake Shake, SAB Miller’s East African replica in the country, is currently enjoying excise duty due to its 100 per cent use of locally produced materials such as sorghum, maize and guinea corn.

Mr Gregory Metcalf, MD, ABL

“We are already in discussions with the government to see if it can support us with an excise regime to brew cassava beer and make it affordable to the local market,” the MD said but declined to comment on the government’s posture to the company’s request

“Those discussions are still in their early stage s and the government is listening,” he noted.  

Checks at the Trade and Industry Ministry showed that the company was indeed asking for a tax incentive on the commercial consumption of cassava, the main ingredient in SAB Miller’s cassava beer currently brewed and widely patronised in South Africa and other southern African countries.

ABL’s push for an excise duty on the commercial consumption of cassava produced in the country comes months after the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffour, announced in the government’s 2012 Budget Statement that brewing companies that increased their consumption of local raw materials could enjoy tax incentives, including excise on the final goods in question.

At the end, Mr Metcalf said “brewing cassava beer in Ghana will be exciting and we like to do it. That, however, depends on the support we will get from the government”.

                                                         

Air transport still safest – GCAA

THE Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has called on the travelling public, especially patrons of air transport, not to be discouraged by the recent plane crashes that killed 10 people in the country and several others in other countries recently.

The Director-General of the authority, Air Cadre Kwame Mamphey (Rtd), who gave the appeal in an interview, said despite the happenings, air transport still remained the safest among all the other means of transport in the country

“That crash was an unfortunate incident and the GCAA grieves with the victims’ families and friends.

Air Cdre Kwame Mamphey, DG, GCAA

“But it should not discourage our country men and women from travelling by air because air transport is still the safest means among the rest,” the DG said.

On Saturday, June 2, ten persons died on the spot when a cargo flight belonging to Nigeria-based Allied Airlines crashed into a passenger vehicle near the El-Wal Sports Stadium in Accra while struggling to land.

Although all four crew members of the Boeing 727-200 were reported to have sustained some injuries, all persons on board the commercial vehicle died.

Barely a day after Ghana’s crash, reports had it that a Boeing MD-83 also operated by Dana Air in Nigeria ploughed into a printing works and residential building in neighbouring Nigeria killing about 153 people including the crew members, all passengers on the plane and others in the buildings at the time of the incident.

Similar crashes have also been reported in other countries of late where causalities are said to have been recorded.

An air transport patron and staff of the Graphic Communications Group Limited said of the crashes that “these incidents are really worrying. They raise questions over one’s safety while up in the flight.”

However genuine those fears may be, the DG of the GCAA said travelling by air still remains the safest, fastest and most comfortable means of transport.

“I don’t want to compare this crash to other incidents on the road or even compare the two because people already know what happens on our roads almost every day,” Air Cadre Mamphey said.

He further assured the travelling public of the authority’s resolve to ensure passenger and crew safety at all times.

“Safety has been our hallmark and that is what we will be working at achieving. The public should be rest assured that the GCAA is up to the task as it has always being in ensuring that there is safety in the air always,” he added.

Read more insightful aviation stories and articles on a special supplement on the aviation industry in our June 26 edition.