Everyone in Ghana knows that the country struck oil in 2007.

However, the search for oil in Ghana began in 1896 when occurrences were detected in the Western Region in colonial times.

It took Ghana over a century to hit oil because finding black gold is highly risky and crazily expensive.

After trying to use the country's own resources to do this for a while, a strategic decision was taken to change the approach by letting investors come in and bear the larger part of the risk. Once de-risked, Ghana can then afford to play a bigger role in discovery and production. Investors had to be given attractive terms and assured of the security of their investment for this to work.

That is how in 2007, when Ghana first struck oil, it was Irish and American investors at the forefront. Later, Italian and Swiss Investors called Eni and Vitol also discovered the second major field.

A Ghanaian investor also made a find. But because of the proximity of his find to the Eni-Vitol field, a dispute arose as to whether the finds were connected and should therefore be developed together.

It is in moments of such disputes in matters of such extreme national importance, that level-headed government officials show their strategic brilliance and competence.

When the matter was referred to the Attorney General, he saw clearly that this was an issue that Ghanaian civil society organizations like IMANI and ACEP have been working on for years. We had written loads about it. We have made speeches and offered suggestions.

Yet what did he do? The Attorney General arrogantly ignored everything. He refused to engage local stakeholders in the issue. He didn't even bother to guide the government to attempt an amicable settlement of the disputing investors.

In his usual overbearing and brusque manner he rushed headlong into international arbitration, hired the most expensive lawyers he could find, splashed millions of dollars on them, and attempted to push the government's totally reckless and indefensible position! What was this position?

The government wanted Eni and Vitol, after over 7 billion dollars spent, some of it borrowed from the World Bank, to relinquish 55% of the oilfield. No investor will ever agree to something this ridiculous. The Energy Minister, who is not a lawyer can be forgiven for his exuberance. But what is the excuse of the Attorney General?

Once again, he demonstrated a deep disinterest in fairness and justice. He thought he could use his "win at all cost" takashi model in international arbitration, too. And play chaskele with Ghana's millions. Today, Ghana lost!

What a shame!

We need to see some contrition from the Attorney General. Even more importantly, we need to see him mend his ways. Otherwise, one day he will plunge this country into the abyss with his dangerous disinterest in justice and fairness and preening obsession with false "victories".

Ignore AG Dame's Spin and Propaganda

Once again ignore the aggressive propaganda by the Attorney-General and his spokespersons.

In summary.

1. The case on liability succeeded for ENI. The Tribunal ruled that Ghana's actions breached both Ghanaian law and the Petroleum Agreement. The Minister's directives were wrong and unlawful.

2. The Tribunal agreed with ENI entirely on the conditions for an 'accumulation' and that establishing dynamic communication is an essential pre-condition for the MoE to take unitisation measures under Ghanaian law. It found that a straddling accumulation had not been established in any of the reports on which the MoE relied and that the MoE's powers to order unitisation had therefore not been engaged.

3. The October and November Directives were held to have numerous procedural and substantive shortcomings, including that the Minister's calculation of the tract participation suffered from multiple flaws.

4. ⁠At this stage, the Tribunal declined to award damages to Eni and Vitol – but the Tribunal noted that "this determination is without prejudice to the Claimants' right to claim damages if, despite this Award, the wrongful unitisation directives are enforced" (par 453).

5. Ghana's counterclaim was dismissed and actually laughed out in court. The Attorney-General and his spokespersons aren't talking about that. Also, he should be bold to tell us that had he even won the arbitration, Ghana would have been worse off.

6. By the way, did you know that we wouldn't have been here at all if government were accommodating of ENI's overtures to settle amicably even though they had the upper hand? My brother Benjamin Boakye just reminded me that ENI brought their top brass to engage Jubilee twice. They also brought the Prime Minister of Italy to Ghana.

But stubborn and arrogance propelled by local court champions refused to see reason. All they wanted was unitization even as it did not make economic sense. I even suspect they were rejected based on pure mindless petty Ghana politics.