- Kevin Detained by Dubai Authorities After EOCO Failed to Act on Investors’ Over $90 Million Complaint
When news broke this Saturday morning, November 1, 2025, that Kevin Okyere, the principal behind GMP Energy Limited, had been detained by Dubai authorities, Ghana’s oil industry was jolted. Kevin Okyere had quietly flown out of Accra the previous night to meet with a big oil company official to discuss a prospective partnership.
But what was meant to be a discreet business meeting in the Gulf quickly turned into a diplomatic and legal storm.
According to information available and reviewed by NorvanReports, Mr Okyer was detained on arrival in connection with a pending arbitration default at the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), a case linked to a $94 million petition filed by Swiss-based Petraco Oil Company SA against GMP Energy Limited. The petition, lodged in May 2025, alleged that GMP diverted proceeds from crude-oil liftings made through their joint venture, Petraco Energies DMCC, and failed to honour reconciliation obligations.
In June, Petraco formally petitioned Ghana’s Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), requesting a criminal probe into what it described as a “fraudulent conversion of export proceeds”.
Despite the scale of the alleged losses, estimated at over $90 million, EOCO has, to date, made no public move to investigate. The agency’s silence, sources close to the matter say, may have encouraged GMP’s leadership to treat the issue as a commercial inconvenience rather than a potential criminal exposure.
That sense of impunity collapsed in Dubai this week. Immigration authorities reportedly flagged Okyer’s passport after he entered the emirate for the Lukoil meeting, citing an unresolved arbitration non-appearance notice and related civil enforcement request.
Ironically, Okyere’s trip had been intended to restore investor confidence. NorvanReports understands that the meeting was scheduled to explore new joint-venture opportunities for Ghana’s midstream expansion projects.
Instead, it drew renewed attention to GMP’s credibility and to the government’s proximity to a private operator now facing mounting legal scrutiny abroad.
The DIAC case lies at the heart of Okyere’s troubles. In early 2025, the arbitration tribunal scheduled preliminary hearings after Petraco Sister’s company in Dubai lodged its statement of claim. But GMP Energy failed to file a defence or appear. The tribunal proceeded to record a “non-appearance”, giving the complainant permission to pursue the case ex parte.
In a formal rejoinder to NorvanReports dated 24 June 2025, GMP insisted the matter was “before arbitration in Dubai” and framed the issue as a commercial reconciliation, not fraud. Yet by then, its absence from proceedings had already weakened that defence.
Industry lawyers note that under DIAC rules, a non-appearing respondent risks an adverse default award, enforceable across jurisdictions, including Ghana. Okyere’s detention now suggests Dubai authorities are treating the default as a live enforcement matter.
GMP’s saga reverberates across an oil industry already fatigued by legal entanglements. Springfield Exploration & Production Ltd, named alongside GMP in the Petraco petition, has maintained that the dispute is purely commercial. In its June 2025 correspondence to NorvanReports, Springfield clarified that it “never admitted liability” and that the story rightly emphasised the word alleged.
Still, the controversy follows years of turbulence. The ENI–Springfield unitisation dispute, Ghana’s loss at international arbitration in 2024, and ACEP’s damning critique of state oversight have all painted a picture of a sector struggling with legal consistency and regulatory depth.
The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has long warned that Ghana’s petroleum management is trapped in what it calls “governance by litigation”. Instead of solving technical or commercial differences through transparent dialogue, parties rush to courtrooms or arbitration chambers. The result: a steady erosion of investor trust and a rising cost of capital for the state.
Mr Okyere’s detention epitomises this vicious cycle. What began as a commercial disagreement now straddles criminal suspicion, political intrigue, and international embarrassment.
The timing could not be worse. Ghana’s crude output is down nearly 26 percent year-on-year, and exploration spending remains stagnant. The government is banking on new partnerships to reignite the sector, but investors increasingly cite legal unpredictability as their biggest deterrent.
“The perception that politically connected firms can ignore due process at home but get detained abroad is toxic,” noted a senior industry consultant. “It tells global investors that Ghana’s enforcement institutions are selective.”
As of Saturday afternoon, local time, which was evening in Dubai, Kevin Okyere remained in Dubai under detention pending verification of the arbitration record and possible civil enforcement actions. Neither his team here in Ghana nor the people who know about this matter had issued a statement.
EOCO, too, has stayed silent. Insiders suggest the agency may now face pressure to reopen its file and cooperate with foreign investigators. For many in Ghana’s business community, the message is clear: impunity abroad carries a heavier price.
If a Ghanaian executive can ignore arbitration, skip appearances, and still fly into the same city expecting to cut new deals, only to be detained, the country’s institutions must confront their own inertia.
As one industry veteran told NorvanReports:
“Dubai has done what EOCO wouldn’t, act.”
