Business News of Monday, 2 December 2013

Source: Abdul-Kadiri Sulley - HSSE Engineer

Sinopec corporate social responsibility in Ghana

Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corporation is the main contractor constructing the Ghana Early Phase Gas Infrastructure Project at Atuabo in the Western Region of Ghana.

This article seeks to highlight on practices and the constructional activities undertaken by Sinopec as part of fulfilling its commitment to corporate social responsibility towards the people in its project catchment area.

This project spans across the breadth of eight district assemblies MMDA’s (Municipal Metropolitan District Assemblies). Interestingly, Sinopec has worked across these entire districts without any social or community conflict due to a good social relationship with the people in these districts.

horizontalEnvironmentally, Sinopec has a very robust and sustainable practices and programs to protect the environment from pollution by its constructional activities. This has come in both technical design and operational practices. A typical example of such environmental friendly technical design was the thrust boring and Horizontal directional drilling operation, which was done with the sole aim of protecting Ghana’s wet lands and river systems as well as the road systems.

By this, Sinopec has crossed not less than three major rivers (Amansure, Ebi, and Ankobra) and seven major roads (Kambunle, Esiama, Tarkwa, Krisan, Eshem, AT 49 and Aboadzi) in its entire operational span (111km onshore pipeline).

thrustSocially, Sinopec has not solely concentrated in its project catchment area but progressed to constructing major access roads to some fringed communities outside their scope of project. A typical example is the access route from Anaji village leading to AT30 (Block Valve station 1) and to the nearest village after the BLK V1 to allow easy access from the community to the nearest town.

Another notable corporate social initiative is the construction of the 1.4 km ASEMDA ACCESS road which is located at the western side of Sinopec’s main camp. This road that happens to be the main commuting route for the people of ASEMDA to the main road and its surrounding communities was one of their pressing and aspirational needs to transport their farm produce to the nearby towns and also avert some of their problems. The construction began on June 14th 2013 and completed on July 8th 2013. It covers a span of 1.4km with nine (9) culverts along; before its construction, about 830m of the road was in deplorable state which could take a vehicle about twenty to thirty minutes to the main road instead of five minutes. The road is approximately 5m wide and almost 1300 cubic meters gravel was used during the construction as shown in the figures below. This conscious effort by Sinopec goes to deepen the relationship between the Chinese expatriates and the villagers and enhances the international image in terms of corporate social responsibility. Sinopec as a company is just not profit oriented but socially responsible in improving the living standards of the communities where it operates.

sinopec

Currently, Sinopec is reinforcing the Kasaworudu Bridge leading to the company’s Manpon Camp as part of its corporate social responsibility. This conscious effort by the company goes to deepen its mutual relationship with all the villages.

Apart from the above mentioned measures, Sinopec has engaged the local people in all aspects of its operation as part of fulfilling the local content policy of Ghana, and continually strives to improve its operations, measures and promote harmony in all areas of its operation.