The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has warned Ghana not to treat Tullow as an adversary after winning a US$393 million tax arbitration against the oil producer.
The policy group’s Executive Director, Benjamin Boakye, said the state needs both the revenue from the Jubilee and Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) fields and the continued investment and production that generate it. “A commercial dispute should not turn a partner into an adversary,” he said.
The warning matters because the award lands as Ghana and the Jubilee partners are trying to extend the life of fields that have been the backbone of the country’s oil output. How the government collects the money will shape whether Tullow keeps investing in them.
An International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal delivered its award on 29 September 2026, dismissing all of Tullow Ghana Limited’s claims and upholding in full the Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) assessment of US$393,091,993.70 on business interruption insurance proceeds. The tribunal found the assessment did not breach the petroleum agreements, was not time-barred, carried a properly applied penalty and was lawfully enforced. The GRA issued the assessment in December 2022, and Tullow took the dispute to ICC arbitration in London in February 2023.
Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said on 30 September that the ruling showed every company in Ghana, whatever its size, is subject to the country’s laws. He also called Tullow a vital partner and the country’s largest petroleum producer, said the government had been talking to the company about settling outstanding tax matters before the award, and said those talks would continue. They will also cover separate proceedings over the disallowance of loan interest. Forson said the government would implement the award under Ghanaian law with due regard for continued operations in Jubilee and TEN and Tullow’s ability to keep investing. He noted that Ghanaian law lets the GRA decide the time and manner in which assessed taxes are paid.
Tullow said it was disappointed with the ruling but willing to discuss its implications and next steps with the government.
Boakye said that response showed how commercial disputes should work: each side makes its case, submits to the agreed process and pursues whatever lawful remedies remain. He urged the state to separate commercial disagreements from criminal conduct, arguing that a company challenging the government through arbitration should not, for that reason alone, be treated as an enemy.
He linked the case to Ghana’s ambition to become a seat of international arbitration. That status, he said, depends on predictable courts, independent adjudication, respect for contractual processes and confidence that state power will not be used to get around civil procedures, not on declaring the country an arbitration hub. Civil remedies may not always produce politically satisfying outcomes, he said, but they protect rights and reduce uncertainty for investors.
Ghana was represented by the Office of the Attorney-General, the GRA and external counsel Foley Hoag LLP.
