The Executive Vice-President of Tullow Oil Ghana, Mr Kweku A. Awotwi, who announced this at the just-ended Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Texas, Houston in the United States, said the expansion of the country’s upstream sector, with new entrants coming in, set the sector up for further growth.

At a Ghana Day forum at the OTC, an event put together by the Ghana Houston Business Chamber, Mr Awotwi said participation in the country’s oil sector should not be limited to or just about recruitment and employee development, “it should be settings, where businesses can also tap into diverse opportunities in the oil and gas value chain”.

Purely indigenous

Tullow Ghana, Mr Awotwi said, had done quite a bit by reserving specific contracts for Ghanaians operating in sectors such as technical services, logistics and materials, procurement, communication, security and marine services.

“But I suppose one of the key questions today is, how can the diaspora leverage these positive changes and potential in the oil and gas value chain where many have already achieved success?” he asked.

The executive vice-president observed that deploying the right technological innovation, drawing on the experience of others, partnering successful companies and investing in the country’s upstream sector would see more prospects for the benefit of all stakeholders. “I expect to see a further burst of activities in the years ahead,” he said.

Mr Awotwi expressed the confidence that if Ghana continued to sustain an environment of good governance and a reliable legal and regulatory regime, “it would attract other international oil companies (IOCs), as well as individuals and businesses in the diaspora to participate in Ghana’s oil and gas sector”.

Prospects

Making the country’s oil and gas sector a credible, viable, utmost and prosperous one, Mr Awotwi said, remained the responsibility of all within the country’s oil and gas space.

“Production from our two assets, Jubilee and Tweneboa, Enyera and Ntomme (TEN), continues to present an exciting opportunity for Ghana and Tullow to build world-class competitive in-country capability, as well as draw on the competencies of Ghanaian technical professionals from the diaspora,” Mr Awotwi added.

For Tullow Ghana, Mr Awotwi said, that allowed for the recruitment of highly talented personnel with great potential to deliver on Tullow’s operations, and support the oil and gas value chain, saying, “As a result, we have made great progress in our decade-long localisation and local content vision.”

Invitation

The Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission, Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr, urged Ghanaians in the diaspora to come back home and explore the numerous business opportunities the country’s upstream petroleum industry offered.

Mr Faibille said although the upstream sector was evolving, it sought to create a fair and equitable competition of credible manner.

The session gave Ghanaians in the diaspora and the other investors in attendance a detailed understanding and appreciation of the country’s oil and gas sector and urged them to consider collaborations with Ghanaian SMEs to execute contracts in the upstream sector.

Background

Ghana passed the Local Content and Local Participation in Petroleum Activities (Legislative Instrument (L.I. 2204)) in 2013 to increase the participation of local companies in the upstream oil and gas industry.

The Petroleum Commission has been hard on its implementation and in spite of the low capability of local businesses in finance and skills, enormous success has been chalked up.