Technical skills biggest challenge to local content

Although oil companies have achieved a lot in employing Ghanaians, certain key technical- skills areas remain a challenge, Kweku Boateng, Director of Special Services at the Petroleum Commission, has said.

Geophysics, engineering, petroleum economics, commercial contracts and special legal services for the industry are areas in which the country needs to train a lot of people, he said, adding that steps are underway to address this.

“Through our local content programme, we have agreed on a capacity-building programme for the oil companies and many Ghanaians have been sent abroad to acquire academic knowledge. Some have also been sent on industrial attachment to many oil companies, and we hope that in a matter of two years Ghanaians will be controlling almost every sector of the industry,” Kweku Boateng told the B&FT.

Although a number of oil firms say over 80% of their staff is Ghanaian, a lot of the jobs have been in the administrative sphere where salaries are not as high as in upstream technical areas.

The earnings of a labourer or an administrator and that of a technical person in the industry can be very far apart. The Ghana Petroleum Commission, which has been given regulatory authority over the industry -- including the issuance of permits -- says that it has been difficult to attract Ghanaian reservoir engineers, who are earning big in other oil-producing countries, because of the huge amounts involved in paying them.

“Government won’t even allow you to pay each reservoir engineer about US$25,000 every month. Already, it is battling with the Single Spine Salary payments,” said David Atta-Peters of the Commission at the Regional Extractive Industries Knowledge Hub’s 2012 Summer School recently.

The government’s local content policy has four thematic areas: patronage of Ghanaian goods and services in petroleum activities, engagement of Ghanaian professionals, Ghanaian equity participation in oil licences, and the transfer of skills and technology to Ghanaians.

“So in pursuing the local content agenda, the Petroleum Commission will ensure that in all their operations the oil companies achieve maximum local content around these four pillars. And until the local content law is passed, the Commission, as per our act, is using its administrative rule to enforce local content,” Kweku Boateng said.

Considering that the oil industry is quite young in Ghana and that in some areas it takes quite a long time to train people to assume responsibility, the country may have to wait for some time before it realises its local-content ambitions.

A person who comes out of university, for example, is said to require a minimum of seven to ten years to be able to qualify as a petroleum engineer.

“Our oil industry is very young; not many activities occur here. So there is the need for the operators and their sub-contractors to send these young engineers to their other operational areas across the world for them to acquire a wide range of experience,” said Mr. Boateng.