A Commitment to Voluntary Security Principles in Ghana Helps Protect Oil Wealth and a Way of Life
ADF STAFF
When Ghana’s Jubilee oil field was discovered in 2007, it had the potential to be a game changer for the West African nation. With as many as 3 billion barrels of sweet crude oil sitting just 60 kilometers offshore, Ghana had joined an exclusive club of oil-producing countries. Revenue from the site promised to pay for improved public services, infrastructure and to help lift many Ghanaians out of poverty.
Years later, oil has begun to flow at a rate of about 100,000 barrels per day, and all parties involved now have their attention focused squarely on security at the oil installations. After all, the Gulf of Guinea has a well-earned reputation for piracy, oil bunkering and other acts of lawlessness. But Tullow Oil, the British-based energy giant with extraction rights to the largest section of the oil field, does not believe the greatest threat to its work comes from an attack. Instead, Tullow has determined that the greatest long-term threat to the oil sector is resentment or loss of trust by the coastal people nearby who depend on fishing for their livelihoods. “From what I’ve seen in the last two years, the risks we face at Tullow offshore are community safety risks, they’re not security risks,” said Fidelix Datson, the security team leader for Tullow Ghana Ltd.
To combat this, Tullow has unveiled an innovative public-private security arrangement that involves partnerships with Ghana’s Navy and other Ghanaian government agencies, as well as intense outreach to the communities of small-scale fishermen that dot the shoreline. It might be a model worth copying as African governments look to strike the right balance between private commerce and public welfare.
UNEASY NEIGHBORS
Tension between an oil extraction company and nearby communities might be inevitable. Massive rigs are fitted with lights that attract schools of fish, and fishermen tend to follow. This problem was illustrated in 2009, when an artisanal fishing canoe was pulled underneath one of Tullow’s vessels. All fishermen aboard survived, but it was a wakeup call for Tullow of the need for better education about the dangers of fishing near the oil fields.
Adding to the risk, many fishermen tie up their boats close to floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels, which store crude oil before it is moved to tankers. The FPSOs burn off, or “flare,” natural gas, meaning that if fishermen cook with coal pots and burning embers, explosions are possible.
For safety, the industry has instituted a 500-meter “no fishing” radius around rigs, but the restriction breeds resentment. This is particularly strong in Sekondi-Takoradi, a city of 400,000 people where fishing is a way of life. In Sekondi, the shoreline is filled with canoes painted with prayers asking for a bountiful catch and a safe return home for seagoers. A large sculpture of a tuna sits on a pedestal in the town’s central square, symbolizing the importance of the sea to the people. “Most of the fish, especially the tuna and the herring, have gone where the rigs are, because of the lights,” said the late Edlove Quarshie of the Line Hook Canoe Fishermen’s Association in a 2011 documentary by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. “We, the fishermen, what is our fate? Some people are getting jobs because of the oil industry, but we are now losing our jobs. Who is going to speak for us?”
Looking at the big picture, Tullow and the Ghanaian government agree that if the fishermen’s livelihood is jeopardized through loss of marine habitat, injury or oil spills, the communities soon will resent Tullow’s presence and search for other sources of income. If Ghana wants a cautionary tale of the worst-case scenario, it need only look across the continent to Somalia.
“You have a bunch of disenfranchised fishermen who have to deal with illegal and unregulated fishing and marine pollution,” Datson said. “They’re going to have to find different ways of making their money, and that’s where piracy comes in. So for me, as a security guy here in Ghana, I’m tracking that and trying to make sure that we don’t end up causing an issue with fishermen, where they lose their traditional income and start looking for secondary and tertiary income.”
STATE SECURITY AND PRIVATE MUSCLE
Private security companies are a fact of life across much of Africa. In South Africa alone, there are about 9,000 registered security companies employing 400,000 guards. Private guards outnumber police by a ratio of 2-to-1 there, and the largest company, G4S, has a presence in 29 African nations.
But much of the recent history for private security on the continent is mixed or decidedly negative.
South Africa’s now-defunct Executive Outcomes received international condemnation for playing a mercenary role in the civil wars of Sierra Leone and Angola. In Equatorial Guinea, a private security company owned by the brother of President Teodoro Obiang has been a proxy for bribery as oil companies were reportedly strong-armed into signing high-priced contracts for protection. In Nigeria, guards hired by oil companies have been accused of intimidation, torture and even murder.
Alex Vines, the head of the Africa Programme at Chatham House in London, said the need for private security companies isn’t likely to diminish in coming years. In fact, the gap between the ability of many states to provide security and the security requirements on the ground is likely to grow.
“Many African states have accepted that private security will gap fill,” Vines said. “Private security, therefore, is big business, and companies from the outside are looking at making fortunes in Africa.”
Vines said the security gap in Africa exists in part because the continent is home to six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies, and many Sub-Saharan nations are experiencing population booms of 5 percent or more per year. At the same time, the extractive industries — oil, natural gas and mining — have become focal points for rage felt by the unemployed and disaffected.
When citizens protest or threaten extraction efforts, it places governmental forces in the awkward position of choosing to defend a corporation or their fellow citizens. “In the case where local and rebel groups clash with an expatriate company, the government finds itself in a conundrum,” wrote Jodi Rosenstein, a former researcher at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre. “It is financially bound to the [oil company] and needs [it] to continue to operate in the host country, especially where it is in a joint venture contract; yet as the sovereign government, it has an obvious obligation and desire to protect the rights and well-being of its citizens.”
This line is even more blurred in Nigeria where “supernumerary” police are paid and equipped by oil companies, but recruited and trained by the Nigerian police force. Rosenstein calls it a system of “dual allegiance” that is “rife with tension.”
For their part, many oil and mining companies are equally hesitant to get too cozy with the military and police in their host countries. “I don’t want us to be seen as a proxy for government,” Datson said. “The community is asking us to provide things that actually the government should be providing, so there’s a bit of tension there.”
Vines said there needs to be transparency and a clear distinction of responsibilities between private security and the official police or military. “It is a blurring of a line,” he said of public-private security partnerships. “That’s why you need real clarity about the whole thing: who’s paying them and why are they paying them. I think the way around this is transparency and full disclosure.”
Vines said governments are at their best when playing a regulatory role for private guards, including vetting security personnel, overseeing stockpile management and firearms management, and offering training. Private security is at its best when it takes a defensive posture and focuses on protection of its facilities and personnel.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
Tullow Oil thinks it has come up with a solution to the private-public dilemma. In 2013, the company became a participant in the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs). The VPs were developed in 2000 as a set of guidelines for the extractive industry. They outline the ways signatories, which include companies, NGOs and governments, can operate ethically, safely and transparently. In the case of the interaction between oil companies and public security, the VPs call for regular consultation with host governments and local communities, well-defined roles, and the promotion of human rights. When extractive companies hire private security guards, the VPs lay out policies for technical proficiency, background checks of guards, investigation of alleged abuses and a defensive posture.
The VPs appear to be working in Ghana. A detachment of 24 Ghanaian Sailors now patrol in boats along with Tullow’s Offshore Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator. On most occasions, weapons are kept locked away. In coastal communities, through an NGO, Tullow has launched the Jubilee Livelihood Enhancement and Enterprise Development project, in which fishermen from 26 communities are trained in business management, ice box construction, fish smoking and other skills. The company also has collaborated with the Department of Fisheries and hosts radio programs to educate and take questions from concerned citizens.
For its part, the Ghanaian Navy has heightened its efforts to detect and deter large-scale illegal fishing vessels and traffickers. In 2013, the Navy halted two ships for illegal fishing, one ship for drug trafficking and another, the MT Mustard, for hijacking oil off the coast of Gabon. The Navy has updated its Maritime Domain Awareness capabilities and, in 2013, placed four new 46-meter fast-patrol boats and two 57-meter fast-attack boats at the naval base in Sekondi.
The public-private effort is intended to show fishermen that Ghana is just as serious about protecting its oil resources as it is about protecting its aquatic resources and the fishermen’s way of life. In 2013, Ghana announced its intention to become the ninth country in the world –– and the first in Africa –– to sign on to the VPs on a governmental level.
“It is important that we support and contribute to processes that will enable us to maximize returns from our mineral resources while ensuring that it does not engender human rights abuses and poverty,” said Alhaji Fuseini, Ghana’s minister for lands and natural resources.
Datson said the VPs will be most effective when citizens see them in action.
“It’s a comprehensive approach,” Datson said. “We have to make sure that engagement with the communities is clear, communication is clear, and there are no gaps between what we say and what we do. … We’ve found that, actually, it’s common sense, and it makes business sense.”
THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLES
The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) were established in 2000. They are meant to ensure that companies in the extraction industry (oil, gas and mining) act ethically, respect human rights and build effective securtiy partnerships with host governments.
Signatories to the VPs include governments, companies and NGOs. In 2014, Ghana announced it would become the first country in Africa to adopt the VPs.
The VPs help stakeholders in the extractive industry:
- Evaluate risk. Companies conduct a risk assessment of the environment to determine the security risks posed by political, economic, civil or social factors. The assessment also looks at the strength of the rule of law in the country, the human rights records of security forces in the region and patterns of violence.
- Collaborate effectively with public security forces. This includes gathering input from multiple stakeholders including government agencies and civilian leaders, making a clear definition of roles and responsibilities and making strong efforts to prevent and address human rights abuses. The VPs also outline procedures for equipment or material transfer to host governments.
- Employ responsible private security forces. This includes screening for human rights abuses, and ensuring forces take a defensive posture and know the limited scope of their mission. Private forces are trained to concentrate on securing a facility and its personnel while leaving the rest of the work to public security forces.