Loading
Journal
Notes from the seabed up.
Essays by Emmanuel Sampson on decommissioning funds, asset registers and local content — why the data behind an oilfield’s retirement matters as much as the money saved for it.
Decommissioning
Ghana is saving for oilfield cleanup. We need to know whether it will be enough.
Ghana has begun putting money aside for decommissioning. A verified national offshore asset register would show what that money is expected to pay for, how the estimate was reached and when it was last checked.
Read the essaySeptember 2026
Decommissioning
A case for a decommissioning registry for Ghana
The Fund was set up in 2024. The register should come next, so that in 2035 Ghana bargains with data, decommissions with Ghanaians, and pays what the work costs rather than what uncertainty costs.
Read the essaySeptember 2026
Local content
Will we save to spend, or save to build?
Four conversations Ghana needs to have now — local content, skills, vessels and one national campaign — so a decade of saving builds an industry instead of paying for one abroad.
Read the essaySeptember 2026
Why a register
I am looking for my Johnny. Do you know Johnny?
Offshore, sending a vessel to find an asset nobody tracked is a multi-million-dollar version of a school pickup gone wrong. A live register makes it a ten-minute job.
Read the essaySeptember 2026