Ghana is a lower middle-income country with significant proven reserves of petroleum offshore. Like all countries with significant deposits of extractive natural resources, the West African country has engaged in a rapid move to exploit her potential petroleum basins with the hope of maximizing her ability to achieve present and future economic benefits from developing viable petroleum fields. This has been expressed in the rate of new approvals of Petroleum Agreements. Petroleum operations are conducted in the shadow of the law and Ghana, like many other jurisdictions, has developed laws to govern petroleum operations. The major legal instrument through which international oil companies (IOCs) or other investors explore for, and exploit petroleum in Ghana is an International Petroleum agreement (IPA) entered into among the Republic and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) on the one hand and the petroleum investor(s) on the other hand. This is usually through direct negotiations along the lines of a Model Petroleum Agreement. Since 2004, Ghana has entered into several IPA’s with IOCs for offshore exploration, development and production.