FISHERMEN in the Western Region continue to fish around the restricted areas of the Jubilee Field located about 75 nautical miles into the sea, a development which poses danger to vital oil installations.
The fishermen, some of whom are said to have come from Cote d’Ivoire, operate very close to the turret, where the production platform, the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, is hooked to the seabed and near 17 oil wells on the Jubilee Field.
The Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) has declared five nautical miles radius of the Jubilee Field a no-go area and, therefore, asked fishermen not to fish in that area, but they have ignored the directive.
The Commanding Officer of the Western Naval Command, Commodore Steve Appiah, and sources close to the Jubilee partners who confirmed the intrusion of the restricted area by fishermen urged the fishermen to respect the directive of the GMA.
The fear of the Jubilee partners is that if the nets of the fishermen get entangled on the oil production lines, it will cost the nation and the Jubilee partners millions of cedis.
Last Wednesday, 49 fishermen, including some Chinese, were rounded up in a special operation by the Western Naval Command for allegedly engaging in illegal fishing in restricted areas along the coast.
In December last year, President John Evans Atta Mills symbolically pressed the knob on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah to officially signify the beginning of oil drilling at the Jubilee Field.
The first phase of the Jubilee project was successfully completed at the cost of $3.35 billion.
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