MODEC Production Services Ghana JV. Ltd. (MPSG), a MODEC Group company and operator of FPSO Kwame Nkrumah & FPSO Prof. John Evans Atta Mills on behalf of Tullow Ghana Ltd, officially inaugurated its maiden Secondment Training Programme with its sister company, MODEC Serviços de Petróleo do Brasil Ltd. (MODEC Brazil), for its Ghanaian employees.

The aim of this first of its kind training programme within the local oil and gas industry is to develop the capabilities of bright local professionals with the right skillsets, through on-the-job training and best practice transfer at MODEC’s state of the art facilities in Brazil.

This training initiative will see batches of MPSG staff seconded to MODEC Brazil for a minimum of six (6) months each to gain exposure and knowledge from the business in Brazil.

In his opening address, David Gleave, General Manager of MPSG stated that people development was at the heart of MODEC’s business success and that the company continued to aggressively pursue the utilisation of local expertise in its operations.

The Acting CEO of the Petroleum Commission, Mr. Egbert Faibille Jnr. who attended with a team from the Petroleum Commission (PC) intimated that the presence of a strong representation from the PC signified the importance and seriousness that the Commission placed on the Training initiative.

In his remarks, Mr. Faibille chronicled the journey of the development of the training programme with MPSG and commended the company for its commitment and listening ear to train local talent to replace expatriate roles.

“The government of Ghana is committed to the localisation of roles. Our goal is to train our people to become the best in the upstream oil and gas industry”, he said. He added that the PC will be monitoring the training very closely.

The Special Guest of Honour for the Inauguration Ceremony, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe, Deputy Minister of Energy (for Finance & Infrastructure), acknowledged and congratulated the nominees selected for the training programmed. “I see MODEC resetting its business for the next 50 years with this initiative”, Hon. Cudjoe said. He stressed that in future, training of locals will become a competitive tool for companies in the emerging oil and gas countries, and though this initiative as a giant step that needed to be commended, he expected it to continue.

MODEC Global Operations Head, Takashi Nishino, who flew in purposely for the event reiterated that MODEC has been making considerable efforts for improvement in production service and localisation.



“We are intending to continue and even accelerate our activities, and this training programme is a very important part of it.” Mr Nishino further indicated that MODEC has a clear vision to further enhance MPSG as a base not only for Ghana, but also as a support base for its future expansion in West Africa and Africa as a whole. This training programme is a small, but great step for MODEC’s future vision as well.

MODEC has ten (10) Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSOs) vessels and one (1) huge Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) vessel afloat in Brazilian waters for production service to Petrobras, SHELL and TOTAL. In addition, it has two (2) modern FPSOs under construction for the pre-salt fields. MODEC Brazil is the number one offshore service provider in Brazil.

This provides a rich training ground for the nominated Ghanaian professionals to acquire knowledge on their digitalization programme and develop a performance mind-set, among others.



The event was attended by a number of dignitaries including Nana Adjoa Hackman, board member Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the Head of Missions of Japan to Ghana, Mr. Koji Tomati, and Mr. David Blackmore, Operations Manager Tullow Ghana Ltd. who remarked in closing that Tullow expected that the training will impact positively on the trainees, safety performance, problem solving and the development of Ghanaian technical professionals in the upstream oil and gas industry.

The first batch of nominated employees for the training will leave in February 2019.