Ghana has struck a deal with Equatorial Guinea for the supply of one million barrels of oil a year, Ghana's deputy minster of energy, Inusah Fuseini, has announced.

The state-owned Ghanaian Times newspaper quoted him on Thursday as saying the su pply would continue until Ghana secures adequate supplies with the commercial production of its own oil fields o ffshore the Western Region.

Fuseini told reporters on Wednesday before President John Evans Atta Mills flew to Malabo to sign the agreement with the Equatorial Guinea president, Theodore Nguema Mbasogo, that the deal is exciting because it provides â?certainty of deliveryâ?.

â?In addition, the deal under the Ghana-Equatorial Guinea Cooperative Agreement is flexible since the payment structure is concessionary,â? he said.

The deal marks the end of months of negotiations between the two governments for a comprehensive collaboration in the oil sector.

Ghana has had problems with the supply of oil because of financial reasons. Ghan a's main crude oil supplier is Nigeria

Meanwhile, the government has terminated the appointment of the acting managing director of the sole refinery, Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Dr Kwame Ampofo.

No reasons were given in a government statement, but there has been a lot of agi tation by workers of the refinery who say they are being elbowed out of business by not being allowed to buy their own crude oil.