Gov’t to roll out draft localisation policy in oil and gas industry

Herbert Krampah, Deputy Energy Minister, seated with Egbert Faibille Jnr, CEO of Petroleum Commission

Government, through the Petroleum Commission and the Ministry of Energy, has decided to roll out a ‘draft localisation policy’ to ensure deliberate steps are taken to promote local participation and reduction of dependence on expatriate labour in Ghana’s upstream industry

The Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission, Egbert Faibille Jnr, announced this during the 2023 Upstream Job Role Localisation Conference held under the theme “Utilising Trained Ghanaian Technicians to achieve Job Role Localisation in the Petroleum Upstream Sector”.

Mr Faibille Jnr said the policy aims at gradually replacing expatriates with qualified local professionals, noting that the petroleum industry had long been a significant contributor to Ghana’s economic growth, and the government recognizes the importance of empowering local talent to maximize the sector’s potential.

The Chief Executive also indicated that the draft localisation policy would outline specific measures aimed at achieving this objective, adding “it will identify key positions and skill sets that will be targeted for local recruitment and development”.

Capacity building

According to him, the draft policy will also address challenges related to capacity development and technology transfer, ensuring that Ghanaians have access to the knowledge and expertise required to excel in the upstream industry. He said by prioritizing local talent, the government intends to foster economic empowerment, job creation, and a more sustainable and self-reliant upstream industry.

“Oil and gas upstream is a very technically loaded operation. For example, over three Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSOs), are in Ghana now. When we discovered oil, everyone in this country had great expectations that quality and standard of life is going to improve, our people will get jobs…But could you buy a Mercedes, Audi, Toyota V8, to drive and you give to a rooky driver or when you drive it, and it develops a fault, will you give it to a welder apprentice. Certainly not!,” he stated.

Mr Faibille Jnr, therefore, highlighted the importance of international standard qualifications in the oil and gas industry. He called on educational institutions to help in ensuring that students are equipped with knowledge not only from the oil and gas sector but also possess a comprehensive understanding of the systems and projects associated with FPSO vessels and production platforms.

He stressed the significance of imparting awareness regarding health, safety, and environmental implications in their training, and underscored the need for Ghanaian students to acquire qualifications that meet global standards, thereby enabling them to be competitive in the international job market.

Significant efforts

Reading a speech on behalf of the Energy Minister, a Deputy Minister of Energy, Herbert Krampah, said successive governments had made significant efforts to ensure that the oil and gas resources translate to wealth creation for Ghanaian citizens. He stressed that job role localisation is one of the key target areas for the indigenisation of the wealth from the oil and gas resources.

The Deputy Minister of Energy noted that the government had over the years provided the needed support to the Petroleum Commission to ensure that capacity building efforts produce the intended results

He restated that commitment of the government to actualise job role localisation is demonstrated by the implementation of the provisions of relevant policies, laws, and regulations such as Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act, 2016 Act 919, Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulation, 2013 L.I. 2204 and Petroleum Agreements.

Reminding Ghanaians of government’s invested efforts, Mr Krampah mentioned the Acceleration Oil and Gas Capacity Building (AOGC) Programme launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in 2017, which aims at consolidating existing oil and gas building programmes.

He urged everyone to take charge of the 21^st century in building capacity of knowledge, skill, technology and findings to transform the capacity building efforts in the upstream petroleum sector. He also commended the work of the Petroleum Commission for living up to its task and mandate.