uniBank partners Oil & Gas Service Providers Association to promote local content

Unibank Ghana Limited has partnered the Ghana Oil and Gas Service Providers Association to promote local content in the industry, which is heavily dominated by foreign investors.

The two institutions have, therefore, embarked on a series of activities, which seek to increase the level of participation in the sector.

As part of measures to mark 10 years of oil discovery in the country, the two institutions organised a conference on the theme: ‘10 years of oil discovery in commercial quantities; the past, present and the way forward’, which brought together oil and gas service providers to discuss issues relating to promoting and ensuring local content emphasis in Ghana's oil production.

At the conference, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Takoradi Constituency, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, said the purpose and consequent benefit of oil discovery in Ghana would be defeated if critical attention was not given to promoting and ensuring local content.

He said the country had expressed the desire for the control, as well as the benefits in the oil and gas discovery and production to remain with Ghanaians and it was for this reason that the local content and participation policy had been developed to define actions that would ensure Ghanaians take control and thus, maximise their benefits.

Mr Darko-Mensah said the promotion of local content was a priority of government, adding that the government would, therefore, support any initiative which sought to give a helping hand to the local content policy.

A Deputy Minister of Energy, Mr Joseph Cudjoe, also emphasised the need for the enactment and implementation of polices that would help Ghanaians reap the desired benefits of the country's oil production.

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Background

Ghana discovered oil in commercial quantities offshore along the Cape Three Points in the Western Region in 2007 after years of prospecting.

Production in the Jubilee Field started with 80,000 barrels of crude oil per day and has currently reached a production level of 110,000 barrels per day. It is expected to peak at 120,000 barrels per day in the years ahead.

Though the resource is in Ghana, the country’s stake in the sector is less than 20 per cent.

In a bid to ensure that Ghanaians are not sidelined, however, Parliament passed the local content and local participation regulation (L.I. 2204) in 2013 to put indigenous Ghanaians at the forefront of all petroleum activities.

Despite the passage of the local content regulation, analysts believe that the quantum of local participation, as well as the extent to which local people can participate in the oil and gas sector is limited with regards to technology, finance and human resources.