Petroleum Commission to introduce upstream internship programme

OilA director at the Petroleum Commission, Mr Kweku Boateng, has hinted that the Commission would soon start a programme known as the Ghana Upstream Industry Internship programme to build the expertise of young Ghanaian graduates in oil and gas.

He said this would be done in various disciplines to make Ghanaian youth employable in the emerging industry and increase the number of local graduates with skills in the industry.

Mr Boateng was contributing to a discussion on oil and gas production in Ghana organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in collaboration with Ghana Oil and Gas for inclusive growth.

It was on the theme: “Five years of oil production in Ghana; opportunities and challenges.”

He said the programme would target about 150 to 200 graduates who will be trained by oil and gas companies over a period of 18 to 24 months.

Mr Boateng indicated that in line with this, the Commission would collaborate with and build the capacities of local universities and technical institutions, who would in turn train more Ghanaian youth to acquire the needed skills.

He said discussions were also ongoing to review the academic curriculum of universities providing courses in oil and gas, to make them more relevant to the industry.

The Commission, he said, was in talks with the Petroleum and Engineering Department of KNUST and the Earth Science Department of the University of Ghana, Takoradi Polytechnic and University of Mines and Technology in Tarkwa to achieve that aim.

Mr Boateng said in order to have a successful programme, funding would be provided for the training of various university faculty members.

He mentioned that since 2010, a total of 7,000 people including expatriates, have been employed in the oil and gas industry, out of which 5,600 were Ghanaians.

Mrs Jean Mensah, Executive Director, IEA said cumulatively the Ghana government has received a total of about 3 billion as its share of the oil revenue and other oil related receipts, since the first lifting of crude oil in 2011.

Mrs Mensah said the IEA has been tracking progress in the governance of the petroleum resources, adding that “we have reported gradual progress over the past five years in efforts to improve transparency and accountability in the management of the petroleum revenues.”

She said the IEA through its P-TRAC index report has been advocating the passage of the right to information bill, and petroleum exploration and production bill to help promote transparency.

Source: GNA

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