Petroleum Commission to scale up capacity for local oil and gas companies
The Petroleum Commission says it has initiated moves to scale up capacity of indigenous Ghanaian oil and gas companies to address critical knowledge gap areas which adversely affected the realisation of the expectation of the local content and local participation regulations in the oil industry.
According the Commission, there are challenges and limitations of indigenous Ghanaian companies participation in the country’s oil and gas industry and consequently said only a fraction of spend by the IOCs and major service companies takes place in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Egbert Faibille have described the situation as very worrying and disappointing at a workshop organized by Petroleum Commission in collaboration with the Tullow Ghana Limited on business ethics and compliance aimed at developing a robust local content in the upstream oil and gas sector in the country in a sustainable and transparent manner and explained that the resources that finances these spend are not only owned by Ghanaians but are also depletable.
In addition, the workshop will enhance the core mandate of the Commission and its stakeholders to add value to their good governance practises, ethics compliance and transparency in the upstream oil and gas sector.
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He said assessment of the impact of the Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2013, (LI 2204) after its implementation over a 6 years period have indicated that there are challenges facing local companies in the oil and gas industry.
It is as a result of the emerging challenges that Board of the in the year 2018 instituted a Business Advisory and Enterprise Development Department to provide business advisory support to build the capacity of indigenous Ghanaian companies in the said sector to meet the requirements of the oil and gas industry”, he stressed.
Throwing more light in business ethics and compliance in the oil and gas industry, Mr. Faibille said it plays a significant role in making contract award decisions as some indigenous companies are unable to meet the expectation as the Commission is putting in place pragmatic measures to identify ways of overcoming the challenges as well as blocking loopholes particularly in the areas of bribery and corrupt practises.
On COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant impact on the oil and gas sector of the economy, the CEO said training programmes of the Commission for the year 2020 did not materialize due to the pandemic and as a result the Commission have decided to go virtual in organizing the said programmes.
In a remark, the Managing Director of Tullow Ghana Limited, Wissam Almonthiry said when ethics and compliance are properly applied in the oil and gas industry players in the sector will be equipped with the relevant knowledge and work in line with global best practices in the industry.
According to him, the collaboration between the Commission and Tullow Gh Ltd will discuss and share knowledge and also build capacities in the upstream oil and gas industry adding that such initiatives will spearhead maximum value from the Jubilee and TEN oil fields under the Ghana Value Maximization Plan (GVMP) and pointed that properly, the plan will see a further $4 billion investment in Tullow’s Ghana operations over the next (10) years.
Source: Ben LARYEA
