Since 2012, Ghana has joined the oil and gas producing countries in Africa. The extraction of oil and gas takes place offshore, but the need to process and transport the resources has sparked unprecedented industrial infrastructure development along the coast of western Ghana. This has sparked considerable worries about negative social, economic and environmental externalities among the local population. However, the development of industrial infrastructure has also raised the local communities’ expectations of concomitant benefits such as infrastructure enhancement, employment opportunities, and general local economic growth. This has led to intense competition for the siting of industrial infrastructure projects between and within local communities, although the actual benefits of these projects for local communities seem often to be elusive.
Based on qualitative research conducted from 2015 to 2017, this study presents findings from a qualitative case study of the conflicts and negotiations that surrounded the siting, construction, and distribution of benefits of the Ghana Gas processing plant in Ghana’s Nzema East district. From an actor-oriented theoretical perspective, the study documents the negotiations between local actors, oil and gas companies, NGOs and various government institutions in Ghana and discusses the outcomes of the negotiations.
In a highly unregulated environment, local actors designed different strategies to negotiate for the potential benefits emanating from the upcoming gas plant. The negotiations occurred within and in between two different communities, where actors such as local farmers, customary authorities, local business people, and (local) politicians pursued sometimes conflicting and overlapping interests. The siting of the plant and the potential benefits resulted in a competition between two communities, both bidding for the investment. But also within the communities the siting created conflicts about legitimate chieftaincy and eligibility for compensation. The study shows that some actors, such as the disenfranchised youth, formed social movements and engaged in contentious politics strategies to press for their perceived interest. However, political leverage, networking and collaborative strategies, involving rather than confronting companies and government institutions, seem to have paid off. While local negotiation power was initially low, factors such as growing CSOs interests in support of local actors and the growing recognition of local actors as key actors in the oil sector by government and oil and gas companies, helped to enhance local power in negotiations. While local actors have since been able to negotiate for their perceived benefits, paradoxically, the consequences of the siting of the gas plant may be less than beneficial for large parts of the ‘winning’ community.