Ghana hosts SPE confab on oil & gas today
The stage is set for the global conference by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) to discuss how the African oil and gas industry can evolve and grow with a more sustainable outlook.
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The conference by the global players in the oil and gas industry will centre the discussions around health, safety, security, environment and social responsibility strategies and how to align them with shifting regulatory and fiscal structures. It will be under the theme: ‘Guided by History, Shaping the Future: Protecting People and the Environment in Africa.’
Unique industry expertise
The conference is expected to leverage on diverse and unique industry expertise to better understand the emerging futures of oil and gas prospects, and build capacity, while addressing the daunting operational challenges faced by the industry.
President John Dramani Mahama is expected to address the two-day conference and would be attended by high-profile personalities, including ministers of state, chief executives and leading players in the oil and gas sector.
The Co-chairman of the conference, Dr Kwame Boakye, said in an interview that the conference was the largest HSES gathering in Africa and it was also meant to create opportunities to network with HSES professionals.
He said the choice of Ghana was as a result of its interest and unfolding history as an emerging and growing oil and gas producer.
Ghana and new investors
“Home to the famous Jubilee super-field discovered by Kosmos Energy in 2007 and operated by Tullow Oil, Ghana remains welcoming to new investors and offers a pleasant conferencing and learning atmosphere,” he said.
Dr Boakye said much as there were several prospects there were also challenging times for industry, which resulted in cost cutting. “However, safety cannot, in any way, be comprised when striving for cost efficiency.”
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He said such challenges had become evident that companies and contractors who choose to cut health, safety, environment and security budget risk suffering serious consequences and even greater cost implications.
“It takes enormous resources and strategic behaviour to sustain a good HSE behaviour and to cut resources mostly ends up undercutting efficient operations,” he stated, adding that although the oil prices had plummeted in recent times there was increasing evidence that HSE advancements were being made to improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of operations.
The moves he said means the need to ensure competence in asset integrity, training for workforce and leadership engagement continues to be as important as always even against the backdrop of lower oil prices.
Commitment to sustainable ops
He stressed that commitment to sustainable operations should be the catch word for industry. This supports the reasons why it’s important that industry is regulated and compliance enforced. National efforts to help them streamline and adopt these regulations are at times necessary.”
“Not focusing on safety and best practices has dire cost implications. We should also bear in mind that the lack of effective investment in companies’ HSES programmes has many potential costs, including higher injury rates and insurance premiums, fines, disruptions to operations, lost productivity, damage to property or equipment and decreased standing with all stakeholders,” he said.
Accra conference
The Accra conference, slated for the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel on October 4-5, 2016, would specifically discuss the perception that international oil companies do not apply internationally recognised standards in their operations in Africa.
“Not only will it focus on impact mitigation but also on prevention.