Of the 420 million dollar upstream oil and gas contracts issued in 2019, local companies’ share stood at 77 million dollars representing 18.3 percent. Despite a continuous rise in the quantum of contracts that go to local oil and gas companies, the Petroleum Commission still wants to step up its capacity building role to ensure that Ghanaians, not foreigners, benefit from the country’s oil find.
Speaking on the theme, Preparing Indigenous Ghanaian Companies to Play Active Roles In the Upstream Oil and Gas Industry, Manager in charge of Business Advisory at the Petroleum Commission, Kwasi Senya noted that the unit will in the coming months will share with registered local and gas companies, procurement plans of International Oil Companies.
He added that the unit is in talks with banks to address the issues of access to credit and the cost of it. Access to credit is major challenge that prevents local oil companies from participating in the sector. ‘The commission will in next year match local companies with their local counterparts to share ideas.’
Capacity of Banks
Huge volume of oil revenue is domiciled outside Ghana due to the lack of capacity of local banks to handle such amounts. The situation is worsened by gaps the country’s Local Content laws. LI 22014 demands that International Oil Companies open accounts with indigenous Ghanaian banks. The law however is silent on how much of its revenue should be deposited. ‘Moving Forward, the commission will amend the laws with specifics’- Rodney Acquah, Manager M&E, Petroleum Commission.
The Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Program.
This programme was launched in 2017 to equip the youth with technical competencies needed in the petroleum sector. ‘Over the years, we have focused our attention on training persons in the academics of Oil and Gas. A lot of these guys end up unemployed’- Mustapha Hameed, Manager, AOGC, Petroleum Commission. Already the training programme has received 4.5 million dollars in funding from Aker Energy. 5 Ghanaian welders are currently under training in Canada.
Story by Morris Ogbetey