The Ministry of Petroleum has denied allegations by former president Yahya Jammeh that the country’s oil was being stolen by neghbouring Senegal with the collusion of The Gambia government.
According to a statement from the ministry issued yesterday, the country is yet to make oil and gas discoveries on an industrial scale.
“While there have been several oil exploration both on land and offshore, there was little indication that the country has oil and gas resources,” the statement said.
Refuting Jammeh’s allegation of Senegal allegedly benefiting from Gambia’s oil, the ministry said Gambia’s larger neighbour which encircles it on almost all sides unless for the Western Atlantic coastline, has been years ahead in oil and gas exploration.
It said after 49 oil exploration attempts Senegal has begun tapping its offshore oil and gas resources while The Gambia with few tests interspersed over several decades is still at an exploratory stage.
It urged the Gambian public to be careful of what it called misleading and incendiary information of Gambia’s natural resources which might cause unnecessary consternation.
Jammeh without providing evidence claimed mainland Africa’s smallest nation has one of the largest gas deposits in the world, which can be compared to those in Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, but accused the government of his successor Adama Barrow of colluding with his allies in Senegal to allegedly steal offshore oil presumably belonging to The Gambia.
The 60 year old who fled to Equatorial Guinea after losing the 2016 elections to Barrow, accused his successor government of mortgaging the future of the country to its neighbour.
The Senegalese government have not commented.
APANews
