Job security in oil & gas oversight institutions key to avoid oil curse

Players in the country’s upstream oil and gas industry are calling on the government to freeze any attempt to replace the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Petroleum Commission with a “politically aligned” person.

The players have suggested that the appointing authority should rather fortify and support the current CEO with a non-partisan board of experts to direct affairs within the country’s fledgling oil and gas industry.

They also maintain that a similar approach should be extended to allied institutions such as the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for them to protect the interest of the country.

According to the industry players, since the country’s oil industry was nascent, progress made so far would come to naught if changes in government come with changes in critical areas of the economy, especially the leadership of regulatory bodies.

In an interview with the Executive Director of the Ghana Oil and Gas Service Providers Association (GOGSPA), Mr Nuetey Adzeman, he described the current CEO of the Petroleum Commission, Mr Theo N. Ahwireng, as passionate and apt for the industry.

Therefore, changing him would amount to a great disservice to the young industry in Ghana, adding “what we need is rather a strong board with people who have the requisite understanding of the industry to support the commission to succeed.”

He stressed: “To us at GOGSPA, the industry will be shaken to its foundation and it will be the greatest mistake that the current team at the commission is touched,” he said.

Expertise
For instance, he said, at the recent Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas in the United States of America, Mr Ahwireng, a geophysicist with high industry pedigree, made the country proud after expertly stating a strong case for Ghana as an investment destination.

According to Mr Adzeman, the congregation of industry players, government representatives and investors acknowledged his spirited presentation with a standing ovation as he sold the industry and why Ghana should be the preferred destination for oil and gas exploration.

Mr Ahwireng is also the winner of a lifetime achievement award at the 24th Africa Oil Week in Cape Town, South Africa, and easily passes as the face of the country’s oil and gas industry.

An oil and gas law lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Mr Constantine Kudzedzi, also said for such regulators of the new industry, there was the need to ensure that the teams were solid and independent.
That, he said, could only be achieved if people, who were masters of their fields and had built solid foundations, were allowed to put the country ahead of any other interest.

From May 16, 2017, news have been rife with suggestions that the suspended general secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, had been appointed as the new CEO of the Petroleum Commission.

Opportunity to right wrongs
The oil and gas find in 2007 provided the country with another opportunity to correct all the mistakes it has made with gold, timber and other natural resources.

Unsurprisingly, expectations have remained high, with many people hoping that the latest industry holds better prospects for them. It is, therefore, important that managers of various state agencies that fail to follow principles of good corporate governance, face the music.

If the country, indeed, desires to correct the largely negative legacies of mining and lumbering, there is the need to ensure a strong regulatory framework beyond and above partisan politics. This is key if institutions must work, and they must.

Of course, no official of these strategic national installations is indispensable, but the highly technical oil and gas industry is so crucial to suffer yet another conundrum of self-inflicted crisis anchored on cronyism and partisanship.

Former Tullow boss
Just before the first oil find on the country’s independent oil field – Jubilee – offshore Tano Basin, the lead operator Tullow Oil and its partners had a crunch meeting in Singapore.

The then Country Manager of Tullow, Mr Dai Jones, told the meeting that one of the company’s most difficult challenges operating in the country had to do with the change of officers in government offices, resulting from the change of government.

He was particularly worried over changes of officials in regulatory bodies.
Mr Jones was just being candid with the meeting. Merely playing the political cards is no magic wand, and certainly not within an industry that requires professional oversight and hands with demonstrable expertise whose tenure and jobs must be secured from the cyclical turbulence.

With declining crude prices across the globe, industry players need to be deep and innovative on the job, rather than peripheral. This is why people just cloaked in political colours will not be enough to do a resounding job, not even as spokespersons of those critical institutions.

Some perspectives
My point is that if Ghana wants to get it right, and respond positively to changing trends, there should be good corporate governance structures to go with the principles to ensure that institutions already under boards operate independently of needless political intrusions.

It is very important to ensure that boards are packed with competent hands to effectively supervise the performance of executive management as opposed to those who will become stooges and conduits for political manipulation.

Having worked closely with players in the industry as a correspondent, I indeed understate the obvious in saying that it takes new entrants lengthy periods to understand the dynamics of the industry.
Regulating and managing the industry and community expectations is not an “as usual” do. It requires skills and effective communication.

As a country, we can remain relevant in the business of oil production with our best hands, or on the flipside, wait to be cursed as other countries had by the very resource supposed to be a blessing.

It is actions such as the wanton and indiscriminate changes in leadership of regulatory institutions that translate into curses for the general population. Ghana’s story must be a departure in the right direction.