‘Build infrastructure for Oil & Gas production’

Alexander Kofi Mould, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has called for the development of infrastructure for future production of oil and offshore exploration.

Mr Mould, who was speaking at a conference in Accra recently, said the development of infrastructure would offer opportunities to local businesses in the Exploration and Production (E&P) industry.

He also called for the expansion and building of new crude oil offloading terminals and tank farms for fuel storage.

“These facilities will need expansion and building of new ones to accommodate the increased volumes of crude from our fields in the next few years,” Mr Mould said.

Gas and oil that cannot be treated offshore for one reason or the other will have to be brought inland for usage in power plants or the crude oil stored in tank farms, he said.

“These will also require the building of causeways tug basins jetty with berthing or vessel and crude transfer and control system, tank farms, treatment systems with interconnecting lines support facilities, waste water handling system and fire protection system,” Kofi Mould said.

He urged local fabrication yards to partner world-class companies to build and assemble structures for petroleum operations.

Kofi Mould said different companies could be directly involved in the offshore oil and gas activity, explaining that the big oil companies would be involved in direct petroleum operational activities.

Other firms could undertake sub-contracts for them helping to spread the economic benefits through the business community.

The upstream petroleum activity related business would make an important contribution to the bottom-line of all companies in the industry and would require that they hire new personnel, provide additional training to their personnel and acquire new equipment and improve their technical capabilities, he indicated.

“These will make a major contribution to our attempt at domesticating operations.”

He urged the Ghanaian petroleum industry to attract the best international expertise and promote cooperation between domestic and international companies.

“Transfer of technology and experience from international companies has to become key to the development of national petroleum capabilities,” Mr Mould stated.