Ghana’s President, John Dramani Mahama, has projected country’s oil production to hit 0.5mb/d in 2020 by adding oil from recently discovered reservoirs of Greater Jubilee, made by Eni, to the current output of 120,000b/d produced from the Jubilee field, Ghanaweb reported.

In line with the country’s strategy to boost its oil production, Ghana’s Minister of Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah, and Iranian Minister of Petroleum, Bijan Zangeneh, have recently signed a memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Accra to export Iranian crude and petroleum products to the African nation, according to Ghana BusinessNews.

Meanwhile, Ghana National Petroleum (GNPC) started the construction of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage, regasification, and delivery facilities at Tema with a 3.4m tons of LNG per year capacity, an investment of $550m.

Further, attempts to enhance country’s economy follow upon January protests seen in Accra over recent price hikes and taxes amounting to 59% for electricity, 67% for water, and 28% for fuel, The Guardian reported.  Ghana may have to revisit its 2016 budget after the collapse in oil prices, Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, said, giving no specific figures.

Once an African success story built on gold, oil and cocoa, Ghana leveraged its natural resources to produce strong economic growth in the early years of this century. It met the millennium development goal of cutting poverty rates by 50% by 2015, and was hailed as a model of political stability after peaceful elections. But plummeting global commodity prices have resulted in Ghana’s economic slowdown. Export revenues for oil, gold, and cocoa declined from $8.2b between January and September 2014 to $5.8b a year later.

Add to this a three-year electricity crisis, rising public spending and debts giving Ghana a debt-to-gross domestic product ratio of more than 70% – and it is clear why one of Africa’s most stable countries is in trouble, and why political leaders are fretting about their future.