……with local content high on Agenda
…….As Gas prospects excite participants
…….And Gov’t upbeat about oil becoming a blessing

By Agnes Chukwu, News Editor [The Business Analyst]

Speakers at the opening ceremony of Ghana Summit, a platform that has brought together players, prospectors and potential investors in the oil and gas sector under one roof at the capital’s Accra International Conference Centre on Tuesday, were hopeful that by the end of the three-day conference and exhibition, solutions would have been found to some challenges identified with oil exploration and production.
As far as Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Energy (Petroleum), Honourable Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, was concerned, “For this nation the issue should not be whether the oil and gas resources will be a blessing or a curse; it is imperative that the oil and gas resources be a blessing and nothing else!”
For him the active involvement of Ghanaians in the oil and gas industry through local content and participation has become a major policy issue for Government, hence the Ministry of Energy taking steps to ensure that this goal is achieved in order to increase local value-added investment, skills development and technology transfer through a clear and robust local content and local participation policy.
He emphasized that the purpose of this policy is to progressively and comprehensively integrate Ghanaians into all aspects of the oil and gas industry, thereby maximizing the benefits to Ghanaians.
“We hope to see the development of local capabilities in the oil and gas value chain through education, transfer of technology and know-how, active research and development activities,” he said.
He disclosed that the policy is currently being drafted into a legislative instrument to give it the needed legal backing and would be put before the public for scrutiny prior to Parliamentary enactment.
He was hopeful the summit will serve as a platform for devising strategy for Ghana to derive maximum benefits from the natural resources that the country is blessed with, not just for oil and gas.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, acknowledging that exploring for oil and gas and the production activities which follow a successful exploration programme presents some risks and potential impact on the environment, must have come as heartwarming to environmentalists, who have been on high alert, especially following the recent oil spillage in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Identifying these risks and impacts and devising detailed management plans to avoid, prevent or minimize them is the vital and integral part of planning these exploration and production activities” she disclosed.
She emphasized that there has been an increase in petroleum activities due to the recent find, and added that this upsurge in petroleum activities in the country calls for prudent management of the sector to ensure environmental sustainability of the oil and gas sector, which provides impetus for economic growth, without compromising the nation’s environment.
“It is therefore imperative that for a sustainable oil sector there is the need to put in place an efficient and effective environmental management plan that seems to mainstream environmental management, health and safety and community issues into the petroleum sector operations. Legal, institutional and policy framework are necessary for dealing with these challenges and also more of the social impact assesses” she added.
She disclosed that the Environmental Impact Regulation 1999 LI 1652, is an instrument to guide all development, including the oil and gas sector. She added that the LI 1652 makes it mandatory for oil and gas companies to have permits before commencement of any activity.
“Ghana Oil and Gas resources development is currently at its nascent stage that is why the country is making every effort to ensure that the petroleum sector contributes to the present and future needs of Ghana, while keeping a balance between economic development, environmental protection, social responsibility and safeguard good condition for work,” she added.
JOBS
Also present at the Summit, was the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Honourable Moses Asaga, who stated that his ministry, as the regulator and the policy maker for labour, found the summit very refreshing and at the same time challenging.
“With the burgeoning oil and gas sector growing, there will be new challenges that the ministry will have to meet and this will include the development of new skills, training of graduates, looking at a new curriculum in the universities that will make sure that the Ghanaian education fits into this oil and gas industry, particularly with the development of the technical institutions like the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and all the other Polytechnics that we have in Ghana, ” he said.
He stated that one of the themes of the current government is Job Creation and as such his ministry finds the oil and gas sector as an opportunity and a window for creating employment because of the investments that are coming in and the numerous exploration and production companies as well as oil and service companies.
GHANA GAS - Petroleum C’ssion
The Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, who officially opened the summit stated that Ghana has so soon transited into an oil economy and even though the contribution of oil revenue to GDP is still significantly small, it is easy to see that it gives Ghana the opportunity and the potential to be able to transform not only this economy but also the quality of life of its citizens in a really shorter time than it would have taken our dependent on traditional commodities.
“We consider the oil and gas sector to be a significant part of Ghana’s socio-economic progress and we are seeing seemingly increasing investment in that particular sector both from the private sector and also investments that are mobilized by the government and companies themselves”, he disclosed.
He expressed excitement about developments at the gas front, commending the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas), for hitting the ground running as gas would allow the government to achieve its vision in the energy and power sector of increasing Ghana’s power production to 5000MW by 2015, and establish Ghana solidly as a net exporter of power to other countries in the West African power pool.
“More importantly and aside from that it also allows us to set up a downstream industry in the petrochemical sector that will allow us to produce fertilizers and other such products that are an off-shoot of the gas industry” , he added.
He further acknowledged the need to strengthen the legislative regime governing the sector, as well as fast-tracking the capacity-building of the Petroleum Commission to enable it carry out its work.
Speaking on the resource curse and how to avoid it, the chairman of the Petroleum Commission, Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, stressed on the need for providing alternative livelihoods for the locals in the areas which contributed most to the country’s revenue.
Drawing from the examples of the adverse effects of gold mining on communities where such precious metals are extracted, he cautioned that the socio-economic impact of neglect of such communities could lead to a social explosion.
LOCAL CONTENT MAKES BUSINESS SENSE
President and General Manager of Jubilee Field Operator, Tullow Ghana Limited, Dai Jones, stressed on the importance his outfit attached to local content and capacity building, which he said was not just the right thing to do, but commercially sensible as it comes also at competitive costs.
Theo Ahwireng, the Geophysics Manager of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), called for support of the national oil company as it aspires to the status of the Norwegian and Brazillian national oil companies.
He said there have been 16 discoveries since 2007 and the sector has been very vibrant since, disclosing that six out of the last nine exploratory wells drilled resulted in discoveries.
A resource person from Ecobank believes with indicators rating Ghana’s economy and competitiveness high, as well as potential oil reserves putting the country in third place behind Nigeria and Angola as far as oil production in sub-Saharan Africa was concerned, underlies the country’s attraction as the destination for investors.
Welcoming participants on the opening day, Yaw Kankam, CEO of Kros Ghana Limited, the local organizing partners to CWC, was excited that Ghana Gas which was set up only last year was going to be present to shed light on developments at the gas front.
The print version of this article was published in The Business Analyst of Wednesday, March 28 – Tuesday, April 3, 2012 E-mail: thebusinessanalystgh@yahoo.com