Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh (2nd left), Egbert Faibille Jnr. (first right) and other officials of the Petroleum Commission by the unveiled logo of GWB
The Ghana Welding Bureau (GWB) has been launched to oversee the development of a world class welding industry in the country.
GWB will fill a void in the oil and gas industry, which has a high demand for specialised welders to play key roles in a high-risk environment.
Over the years, Ghana’s upstream petroleum industry has lost huge revenues due to the non-availability of internationally certified welders, although there are thousands of local welders in the country.
The Bureau is mandated to ensure that a pool of internationally certified welders is always available to exploit oil, gas, and other mineral resources in the country.
Speaking at the launch yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission, Egbert Faibille Jnr, said that his outfit had identified welding and pipefitting as areas where Ghana lags behind.
This way, expatriate welders and pipefitters come into the country to do the jobs in the upstream petroleum sector.
He cited an instance where, some three years ago, a company that had won a contract to carry out a major pipe-laying project in Ghana sought to bring in 200 expatriate welders and pipefitters.
“The justification was that Ghana had no welders and pipefitters of acceptable standards. In the end, though the Commission was able to reduce the number that was to be brought in from 200 to 120 welders/pipefitters, the number, in our consideration was too high,” he lamented.
Way forward
As part of measures to deal with the situation, the Commission has thus resolved that pipefitting must be introduced as a stand-alone course in Ghana just as welding is taught in some technical universities and technical institutions.
“We have opened discussions in that direction with the Commission of Technical and Vocational Education (TVET),” he said.
Mr Faibille Jnr. further told the gathering that his outfit is currently sponsoring eight lecturers/instructors to train under a ‘Becoming a Master Trainer’(BMI) Programme at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), a world class polytechnic in Edmonton, Canada.
On successful completion of the programme, each of these lecturers/instructors will be awarded certifications as persons fit to teach welding, pipefitting and mechanical technicianship.
“These eight will become the foundational faculty of a world class welding and pipefitting centre to be built at the Takoradi Technical University (TTU) to train, qualify and certify welders and pipefitters in Ghana for the job market…Aker Energy has pledged $5million for the construction that facility at the TTU,” he said.
The Commission signed an MoU with NAIT recently for it to provide the drawings, the technical know-how for the construction of the Centre as well as curriculum for qualifications to be issued by GWB.
The Petroleum Commission boss also revealed that GWB had also been admitted as the ‘Responsible Member Society for Ghana’ of the prestigious International Institute of Welding (IIW).
“Presently, GWB is working to attain the status of an Authorised Nominated Body (ANB). To attain such a status, we need the world class welding/pipefitting centre,” he said.
Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr. noted that it costs a lot of money to run the Bureau, and therefore urged other corporate bodies and persons with the profession of welding at heart to “join GWB today to enable us push this vision to its logical conclusion.”
Challenges
In a presentation, an official from the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Building (AOGC) programme, Mustapha Hamid, said that the welding industry in Ghana is bedeviled with a number of challenges. These include the domination of informal welder, inadequate education and training of welders, poorly structured and poorly regulated industry, lack of qualified personnel, among others.
He noted that addressing these challenges would ensure that welding training and certification in Ghana meet international standards to pave the way for young Ghanaians to be employed in the oil and gas, mining, automotive and other allied industries.
He said GWB is a non-profit, non-governmental body that seeks to represent the welding profession in Ghana and also be responsible for certification and registration of companies and individuals involved in these operations.
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