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Ghana’s parliament has deferred the passage of an
oil revenue bill to mid-January after the holiday recess, leaving the
West African state without a legal framework defining how to use its
initial oil proceeds.

A parliamentary official said that, for now, revenues will be kept in an escrow account.

“We’ll just keep it there, we cannot touch it
until we have passed the bill on its use,” James Avedzi, chairman of
the Finance Committee told Reuters.

Ghana joined the ranks of African oil exporters on
December 15 with the start-up of its offshore Jubilee field with
reserves estimated up to 1.5 billion barrels.

Production is expected to hit 120,000 barrels per day in 2011 before ramping up three years later to 250,000 bpd.

Parliament Majority Leader Cletus Avoka said on
Thursday that House leadership had agreed to delay passage of the bill
until after the holidays, but added lawmakers could be called to
reconvene on January 18, a week earlier than scheduled.

Deliberations on the oil bill, which was drafted
in July, have been hung up on several key issues including a proposal
by government to colateralise oil revenues, a proposal that was finally
adopted by parliament last week.

Ghana’s 2011 budget predicts economic growth will double to 12.3
percent next year thanks in part to energy revenues, exceeding the
IMF’s forecast for 9.9 per cent growth but roughly in line with analyst
projections.