BY GRACE ZIGAH
Okaikwei Central Member of Parliament, Patrick Boamah has alleged that Ghana was on the verge of settling two tax-related disputes with Tullow Ghana Limited for approximately US$150 million before the latest international arbitration ruling went in favour of the country.
Boamah made the claim following the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Tribunal’s ruling against Tullow in a dispute over a US$196.5 million corporate income tax assessment relating to proceeds the oil company received from its business interruption insurance policy between 2016 and 2019. The Tribunal ruled that the tax assessment did not breach Tullow’s Petroleum Agreements with Ghana, although it also determined that the 100 per cent penalties fell outside the contractual protections in those agreements.
In a Facebook post, the Okaikwei Central MP alleged that after the NDC government assumed office in June 2025, Ghana and Tullow entered into discussions aimed at resolving the tax arbitration together with a separate dispute concerning an insurance claim.
According to Boamah, those discussions progressed to proposed Terms of Settlement, under which he claimed the Ghanaian government would have accepted approximately US$150 million to resolve the two tax claims being pursued by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
He alleged that the proposed settlement was ultimately not concluded because of what he described as a “last-minute intervention” by lawyers within the Ministry of Finance, which prevented Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson from signing his portion of the agreement.
“Kudos to those civil servants!” Boamah wrote.
The allegation comes against the background of a lengthy dispute between Tullow and the Ghanaian authorities over tax assessments running into hundreds of millions of dollars.Tullow’s 2025 annual report confirms that the company had two ongoing Ghana tax arbitrations involving the GRA and that the parties had engaged in settlement discussions. The disputes concerned a US$190.5 million corporate income tax assessment relating to the disallowance of loan interest and a US$196.5 million assessment concerning proceeds from Tullow’s business interruption insurance policy.
The latest ruling relates specifically to the second of those disputes. Tullow said the ICC Tribunal ruled that the US$196.5 million assessment did not breach its Petroleum Agreements with Ghana. The company said it was disappointed with the decision and would consider its next steps after further engagement with the Ghanaian government.
The dispute over the loan-interest assessment was also referred to international arbitration. Tullow’s 2025 report said the company had received the US$190.5 million assessment from the GRA in December 2022 and subsequently filed a request for arbitration in February 2023. The hearing had been scheduled for September 2026, with settlement discussions continuing between the parties.
Boamah’s intervention has also reopened discussion about the role played by the previous administration in Ghana’s defence of the arbitration claims.He credited former Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame with laying what he described as important foundations for Ghana’s defence of the Tullow arbitration before the change of government.
According to Mr Boamah, much of the procedural work on the arbitration took place before 2025, including Ghana’s response to Tullow’s claim, the constitution of the arbitral tribunal, challenges to arbitrators, the appointment of external legal counsel and the filing of witness statements.
He specifically cited the appointment of Washington-based law firm Foley Hoag LLP in May 2023 to represent Ghana in the tax arbitration.Tullow’s corporate records independently confirm that the relevant tax disputes were referred to ICC arbitration in 2023 and that the company continued discussions with the Ghanaian government towards a mutually acceptable resolution.
The latest case is also distinct from an earlier Tullow tax arbitration involving the US$320.3 million Branch Profits Remittance Tax assessment. Tullow’s records show that the tribunal in that separate matter determined that the tax was not applicable under the company’s Petroleum Agreements, resulting in the removal of a potential US$320 million liability for Tullow.
The current ruling, therefore, represents another significant development in Ghana’s long-running tax disputes with the oil producer, but the US$150 million settlement allegation made by Boamah remains his account of the negotiations and has not been independently established by the ICC ruling or Tullow’s public statement.
