By Toma IMIRHE Senior officials in the Government of Ghana are now looking up to lifting of crude oil from the Jubilee oilfield by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation scheduled for the second week of March, to ease the rising pressure on Ghana’s balance of payments position. It is anticipated that the first lift by GNPC proposed to take place on March 12 or 13 will give Ghana crude oil sales revenues which can compensate in part for the country’s rising oil import bill. The price of benchmark Brent light crude oil has, in recent weeks, risen to nearly US$100 a barrel, significantly increasing Ghana’s oil import bill and stemming the improvements in Ghana’s foreign reserves position achieved over the past 18 months. By October 2010, Ghana’s gross international reserves stood at US$3,973 million, up from US$2,036.2 million about two years earlier. However while the country’s balance of payments registered a surplus of US$101.66 million during the first three quarters of 2010, becaus...