Abstract:
Oil‘s importance in the global economy cannot be overlooked. Gas, diesel and
petrol, which are by-products of oil, fuel transportation and industrialisation
globally. Due to these and many other advantages associated with oil, its
discovery in many parts of the world has come with a lot of hope and
expectations. However, other countries that discovered oil especially, African
countries, have plunged themselves into economic doldrums and diverse
diplomatic rows. This state of mixed blessings suggest that oil and gas
discovery has implications on Ghana‘s economic development and diplomatic
relations. This study therefore assessed the impacts of Ghana‘s oil and gas
industry on Ghana‘s national economic development and diplomatic relations.
The study is based on interviews with oil and gas institutions, senior oil
company staff, government officials, staff of international companies as well
as secondary sources. Qualitative methods were employed to collect the data
while case study research design was used. The study also adopted Purposive
and Snowball Sampling methods to select the participants while content
analysis was used to analyse the data. The study revealed that the future of oil
and gas in Ghana is extremely hard to forecast. On the one hand the
government tries to show good will in implementing useful measures to
control the oil industry. On the other hand, there is much insecurity, since
there seems to be an atmosphere of secrecy surrounding contracts and contract
processes as well fiscal indiscipline. The study therefore recommends that the
government should ensure a broad-based political commitment to fiscal
discipline by strengthening the institutions that regulate the activities of the oil
and gas industry
