Ghana stands to benefit from Technip, an engineering firm in the energy sector, as far as local participation is concerned because of the company’s commitment to the Local Content Law.

Mr Gauthier Pourcelle, Managing Director of Technip, told GNA the company was working to ensure Ghanaians formed the greater part of its workforce to meet the Ghana’s Local Content Law which took effect in February this year.

Mr Pourcelle was speaking to the GNA in an interview in Accra on the operation of the company to meet the Local Content Participation Law which became effective in February 2014 after its passage in November 2013. The Local Content Law makes it mandatory for stakeholders in the energy, oil and gas sector to communicate their local participation to the general public.

Mr Pourcelle said even before the law came into force, the company had already established a working relationship with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to form the GNPC-Technip Engineering Services Limited (GTES) in November 2012 and added that the partnership had yielded the desired results.

The partnership was to develop and increase local participation and develop transfer of knowledge and technologies to their counterparts in Ghana including the provision of all types of engineering services from feasibility studies to construction in the oil and gas industry. “I can confidently confirm that Ghanaians occupy 85 per cent of GTES’ 52 staff strength,” Mr Pourcelle said.

He said most of the workforce, especially engineers who were recruited from the KNUST and the Regional Maritime University (RMU), had undergone rigorous training for major assignments.

“Currently a total of 14 local engineers are undergoing training in Paris for a period between three months to one year to work on specific projects,” he said adding that this was in addition to an on the job training for other engineers stationed at the fabrication site in Sekondi.

On their return, they would be expected to train other staffers with the aim of increasing the local participation in line with the company’s commitment in meeting the local content requirements.

Mr Pourcelle said GTES was fabricating jumpers and sleepers in Ghana and to prepare for that, the company had partnered the KNUST and the RMU to train students both on internship and National Service to work on the project in addition to donating computers to the RMU to help train the students.

“We are sure Technip has come a long way in contributing to the national local content law and we see training as a great opportunity for these engineers and by so doing we are building the capacity of this great nation”, Mr Pourcelle added.

Tecnip is a world leader in engineering, project management and technologies, serving the energy industry for more than 50 years. It operates in 48 countries with major business segments including subsea and offshore. Technip has been operating in Ghana since 2009 after it was awarded its first contract for the first phase of the Jubilee Field development project.