Without an informed, responsive media community providing oversight of the money from these industries, governance weakens, corruption rises and citizens lack the knowledge to hold their governments accountable and the opportunity to benefit fully from their country’s natural resource wealth.

The application process is open to journalists from Ghana and Uganda. The program is designed for individuals with a demonstrated interest in reporting about the extractive sectors of oil, gas and minerals. To fill out an application now, go to:www.revenuewatch.org/mediatraining2012.

This latest class in our ongoing media training program is conducted in partnership with the African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) in Uganda, Ghana-based Penplusbytes and the Thomson Reuters Foundation. After the initial Uganda session from 14-23 May, two parallel workshops will be held, one for Ugandan participants in Kampala on 20-29 August, and one for the Ghanaians on 3-12 September in Accra.

RWI and our partners take a holistic approach to our journalist trainings, combining workshops, roundtable discussions and field trips with expert dialogues, mentorships, reporting grants and presentations on topical issues.

The most recent training included a study trip to Cameroon, where Ghanaian journalists met with their counterparts in local media, as well as civil society activists, company executives and government officials in the oil, gas and mining sector in the commercial capital of Douala. In December, three of our Ugandan trainees were recognized for their reporting on extractives with awards from ACME, a leader in journalistic expertise and a partner in the RWI program.

Applications for the upcoming class will be accepted through 29 February, 2012.

http://www.revenuewatch.org/news/rwi-accepting-applications-media-training-program

Another subsidiary loan agreement involving $850 million to finance the Western Corridor Gas infrastructure development project is also expected before the House for consideration before approval.

The two financial facilities, expected to develop the oil and gas sectors and boost production, is part of a Master Facility Agreement between Ghana and the China Development Bank Corporation.

In a related development, the Deputy Finance Minister, Fiifi Kwettey, has told Parliament that two main factors contributed to the under performance of the targets set for the 2009 domestic tax revenue.

He said even though LPG, Premix fuel and marine gas oil witnessed higher delivery volumes, there was a drastic reduction of about 90 percent in excise duties on these products in 2009, leading to a substantial shortfall in petroleum tax revenue during the period.

The Deputy Minister, who was in the House to respond to a question on why tax revenue recorded a shortfall in total domestic revenue for the 2009 financial year, said the domestic tax revenue recorded a shortfall of 1.6 per cent in 2009.

He said the target set was GH¢4,705.66 million and the actual was GH¢4,628.66 million and two main factors contributed to this under-performance.

The Minister said one reason for this was the drastic reduction in excise duties on oil and gas products and the second was that import duties also registered a shortfall of 9.8 percent because of the non-restoration of import duty on rice, yellow maize, wheat and vegetable oil.

“Madam Speaker, in spite of the fact that there was a shortfall relative to the target, the growth in total tax revenue in 2009 was significant at 17.5 percent,” he added.

http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2012/02/03/ghana-government-contracts-1b-loans-to-improve-oil-and-gas-sectors/

The malfunctioning of the ultra sonic  metre on the FPSO last year necessitated the use of the traditional  methods which the Minister of Energy  said were fraught with problems in arriving at the amount of petroleum being produced on the country’s oilfields.

He said the ministry had to fall on the Ghana Standard Board and other stakeholders to ensure that the margin of error during the readings was reduced to the barest minimum. Mr. Adjei disclosed these when he took his turn to answer questions in Parliament  yesterday.

The minister told Parliament that  the problem of the malfunctioning ultra sonic metre on the FPSO had been rectified since August  last year and the ministry was taking a cue from the lessons learnt to acquire two extra ones so that  in the case of any breakdown on the part of the metres there could   be spares available. He explained that a new one had already been built and two were on board had been recalibrated. He said  the newly acquired metre and one of the recalibrated had been installed on the FPSO while the recalibrated  metre was being kept a spare.

He noted that the recalibration was witnessed by representatives from the Standards Authority of Ghana and the Ghana National Petroleum   Corporation and the properly calibrated flow metre  and the new  one were installed last year in August.

On the Self Help Electrification Project (IV) the Minister of Energy said contracts had been signed with three local cable and conductor manufactures for the supply  of outstanding  cables and conductors for installation works .He said the supply for cables and conductors had already commenced since December 2011 and was expected to be completed by December 2013.

He said it was suicidal to attach a time frame as to when  the SHEP  IV projects throughout the country could be completed ,since the procurement process required more time.

He, however, assured members that the   ministry had resorted to restrictive tendering to fasttrack the procurement process. The minister said the government had also provided funds to procure over 800 transformers from India and currently a team has left  for India to inspect the transformers before shipment to Ghana.

The Agogo and Asuboi communities in Offinso South District ,the minister said, were included in the SHEP project and the high and low voltage works had been completed at Agogo while the supply of the remaining materials were expected.

Graphic

The company says it opens the lab to meet the increased market demand for an independent petroleum industry testing, inspection and calibration services.

The company said in a statement that the new laboratory is a world-class modern facility, staffed with experienced chemists, testing to industry standards.

“The Takoradi facility tests and inspects a wide range of crude oil and refined petroleum products, including marine fuel, lube oils, diesel, gasoline, etc. Additional expansion of petroleum related testing capabilities at the lab are expected in the coming year,” the statement said.

The company also has plans to set up a “metering and calibration service” in the first quarter of 2012, serving the oil and gas industry in Ghana.

“Our expansion of petroleum industry services into the Takoradi region enhances our existing business in Ghana and is a key element in our local growth strategy,” said Jay Gutierrez, Executive Vice President of Intertek’s Commodities division.

The company has been providing testing and inspection services in Ghana since 1984.

http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2012/02/01/london-based-intertek-plc-opens-new-testing-laboratory-for-ghanas-petroleum-industry/

“This is a new field; we cannot rush it. We cannot push to ramp-up production to get high numbers so everything looks great, and then we damage the wells. We can’t do that,” said Founder and Chief Executive, Aidan Heavey.

He told Business and Financial Times in an interview: “We are looking after the oil, the government is looking after the gas; and so what we’re looking at is how to manage the field. Whether we produce gas or not is not going to affect the 120,000 barrels.”

“There has been lots of talk about Jubilee’s production target. Setting a target is one thing, but you don’t rush into it — you have to do it properly so that you don’t have issues. We will not take a risk to produce 120,000 barrels at Jubilee because it needs to be managed properly.

“Jubilee is a credible, valuable asset for Ghana, and has to be managed properly — that is a key issue. With a new field, you learn as you go along and take technical information and make sure nothing is done to damage the field in the long-term, because the important thing is the asset,” Heavey explained.

Jubilee was originally planned to reach a plateau output of 120,000bpd this year, but now that peak-level is expected to be reached in 2013. This year, output from Jubilee will range from 70,000 to 90,000 barrels per day.

He explained that Tullow and its partners are determined to fix the technical issues relating to some wells at Jubilee.  Together, they need to invest about US$400million to fix mechanical issues related to well designs at the field.

Jubilee is a world-class oil field, with estimated recoverable resources of up to 1billion barrels.
Tullow in a recent statement disclosed that Ghana government has approved the next phase of development for the Jubilee Phase 1A.

“Government of Ghana approval for the next phase of development, Phase 1A, was received on January 9, 2012.” The total cost of Phase 1A is expected to be approximately US$1.1billion and drilling of wells is expected to commence in February 2012.

“The development will consist of eight new wells, five producers and three additional water injectors and the expansion of the subsea network. It will be conducted over an 18-month period,” Tullow explained.
After drilling, Tullow said it expects that production of oil from the phase will be “brought onstream from the second quarter.”

The company expects to invest US$2billion in capital expenditure this year, compared with US$1.4bn in 2011. This will be spent on projects including drilling off the coast of French Guiana, where the British explorer announced a large discovery in September 2011.

The company also announced a new frontier exploration partnership with Shell in the Atlantic basin. Tullow said the planned partnership will focus on making “transformational” discoveries in underexplored frontier basins.

Tullow has interests in over 85 exploration and production licences across 23 countries in Africa, Europe, South America and South Asia.

http://www.thebftonline.com/bft_subcat_linkdetails.cfm?prodcatID=6&tblNewsCatID=77&tblNewsID=10583

GNA

He said the tools outlined in the Petroleum Revenue Management and the Petroleum Commission laws, clearly spelt out conditions upon which the oil proceeds would serve as a blessing to Ghana, including the involvement of local content policy and participation.

Mr Pianim said this Thursday at the third Graphic Business Forum organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in Accra.

He was making a presentation on the theme “Leveraging ICT and Oil & Gas Resources to Accelerate Ghana’s Economic Development,” during the second session of the forum, the focus of which was on oil and gas.  The forum which attracted high-profile participants including seasoned economists, bankers, politicians and captains of industry, was aimed at exposing the business community to the various opportunities in the oil and gas sector.

Mr Pianim who was the main speaker on the topic, recalled that at the inauguration of the Petroleum Commission (PC) in November 2011, the Minister of Energy underscored the strategic importance attached to local content, adding that the law mandated the PC to promote local content and local participation in petroleum activities as prescribed in the Petroleum Exploration and Production Law.

He defined Local Content as contained in Act 821 as the use of Ghanaian human and material resources, services and businesses for the systemic development of national capacity and capability for the enhancement of the Ghanaian economy.

The definition, he observed, mandates the PC to look beyond the petroleum industry and discern opportunities for linkages for transformational development.

Mr Pianim, who is also the Board Chairman of the United Bank for Africa (Ghana), listed environmental safety and health standards, using up-to-date technology to minimise costs and improve recovery and encouraging sustainable development through exploration, as some of the ingredients of international practice.

He explained that the Petroleum Revenue Management law,  mandates the prudent use of oil proceeds and the setting up of the Petroleum Holding Fund into which were to be paid revenues from direct and indirect participation by the Government of Ghana.

He expressed the belief that upgrading the capacity of local banks and financial institutions to fund the oil industry and co-manage the petroleum funds, was critical for the local content policy the government was pursuing.

Mr Pianim stressed the need for editors of media houses to be certified and for journalists to specialise in specific areas, rather than the current situation where reporters held themselves as masters in every field.

The Chairman for the session, Dr Robert Adjaye, who is also the Rector of Petroleum Skills Development Institute, an oil and gas training institution, urged the government to use the oil proceeds to develop the oil and gas infrastructure in Ghana.

http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/page.php?news=18565

A draft local content bill — submitted and subsequently approved by cabinet and currently awaiting parliamentary scrutiny and passage into law, envisages up to 90 percent local content and participation in the oil and gas sector within the next decade.

Experts, including Trinidadian consultants engaged to help develop a local content policy, have noted that government’s expectations were overly ambitious — pointing out that the global best-case of local content in the hydrocarbons industry is about 75 percent.

Government officials in the oil sector are however adamant that such a high local content expectation will encourage speedy action towards Ghanaian control of the nascent oil sector in the shortest possible time.

A recent contract with Chinese state-owned Sinopec for the development of Ghana’s gas infrastructure — which had the Chinese contributing a minimum of 60 percent of the labour force, with only up to 40 percent coming from Ghana — has sparked debate about government’s commitment to promoting high local content and participation in the industry.

A growing consensus among experts point to a need to match local capacity to the local content policy, thus; highlighting the need to invest in education and development of the human capital required by the sector if Ghanaians are to control the sector anytime soon.

Tagoe said discovery of off-shore oil and gas in commercial quantities in 2007 gave the nation a wake-up call.

“Various private training institutions sprang up from 2008 and beyond. Each of these training institutions advertised various training programmes for specific trades or vocations required in the industry.

The large army of unemployed youth in the country was enticed by these advertisements and accordingly enrolled. Other professionals such as accountants, lawyers and engineers enrolled for specialisation programmes in the oil and gas industry,” Tagoe disclosed.

He explained that as a result of the void created in the formal educational sector for training the human resources for the oil and gas industry since the 1970s, the private educational institutions have seized the initiative from the public educational institutions and by extension the Ministry of Education.

Policies governing standards and accreditation for institutions in the educational sector for the oil and gas industry have thus lagged behind the national requirements.

“The situation is the same when it comes to policy-direction for the development of the requisite human resources for the oil and gas industry,” Tagoe said.

He noted that an overview of the various categories of functional groups required to operate and manage the oil industry — including field-workers, operators, trades, technicians, technologists and geo-science professionals, as well as, engineers, marine and nautical services, and business and operations support — indicated there is a big deficiency in the human capital requirement of the sector.

“The deficit of professional, vocational, technical and business entrepreneurs, will take about two to five years to train, to enable them fill much of the gap.

“The best way to facilitate addressing this shortfall is through Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) programmes,” Tagoe observed.

He pointed out that it is necessary the Ministry of Education to take immediate steps to give policy-direction to such a programme.

“This can be facilitated through the inclusion of the relevant subjects at the various levels of the educational ladder in the public institutions, starting from the Senior high schools. Specialisation or specific knowledge-based skills acquisition can be offered at the tertiary level,” Tagoe said.

He proposed that the bulk of technical and vocational skills acquisition courses be offered at the polytechnics, whilst the engineering courses and other specialist fields are studied at the Universities.

At the same time, the private educational institutions should be accredited by the National Accreditation Board to offer courses in which they have the capacity and requisite resources including lecturers.

Tagoe noted that in addition to training programmes to develop the human capacity directly required in the oil exploration and production industry, there will also be need to build the capacity of the Security Services to enable them manage the threats likely to confront the Nation as a result of the development and growth of the Oil and Gas industry, in the most efficient and effective manner.

Perceived threats to national security arising out of the oil industry, Tagoe noted, include border disputes, acts of terrorism, hostage taking, hijacking, kidnapping, abduction, illegal bunkering, stealing of oil, piracy, conflict of interest within the safety zones, environmental degradation, natural disasters, and security of land installations among a host of others.

“Each of these threats require specialist training to contain or eliminate whenever they occur. It thus behooves Government to allocate enough funds to the various Security Services to build the capacity to effectively and efficiently manage these threats before the crime occurs.

“The cost for maintaining sound peace and tranquility within which the desired National Socio-economic Development can thrive is priceless,” Tagoe said.

http://business.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201201/80416.php

He noted, however, that the discovery of oil and gas in Ghana could either be a blessing or a curse depending on how it is managed.

Speaking at a seminar in Accra on “Empowering the youth for the Oil and Gas Industry” Daasebre Oti Boateng, who is also the President of the Eastern Region House of Chiefs, noted that with the recent oil Find in Ghana, the general context of the economy was one of enormous thirst for development and high expectation for employment, especially among the youth.
He said Ghana was in the process of making policy choices which would have the potential of shaping economic growth and the development of the country for years to come.
Daasebre Oti Boateng then asked the fundamental question of how Ghana, which has been traditionally a major exporter of commodities such as cocoa, gold, diamond, timber and others, could now optimally use the oil and gas resources to ensure sustainable development of the country as a whole.

Answering the question, he said first it was necessary to ensure that the oil and gas resources were efficiently and transparently managed in order to ensure equitable distribution and effective utilization of the accrued revenues.

Secondly, the Omanhene was of the view that the oil and gas industry must be properly integrated with the rest of the economy by the creation of vital linkages with the other sectors to ensure optimal national development.

Daasebre reiterated that the oil and gas industry required highly trained and skilled human resources at various levels to operate efficiently and effectively.

Source: Daily Graphic

The scheme, which forms a key part of Tullow’s overall approach to education and capacity building, will support postgraduate degrees, technical training and vocational studies.

The scholarships aim to support local people to participate in the oil and gas industry, and in other sectors that promote economic diversification.

The scheme will address both existing industry skill gaps and national capacity development requirements and is aligned with Tullow’s aim of supporting long-term socio-economic growth in countries where it operates.

A pilot phase had already begun in September 2011 with 24 Ghanaians from the public sector pursuing Masters Level studies with leading universities in the United Kingdom.

Launching the scheme, Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei, Minister of Energy, said the scholarship scheme would give practical meaning to the country’s quest for indigenization of the work force in the oil and gas industry.

“The initiative is a welcomed bold step very much appreciated by government. There is no better way to develop Ghanaians to take over the commanding heights of the oil and gas sector than this approach which in the not too distant future will see our own people giving true meaning to local content in the industry,” he said.

The full Tullow Group Scholarship Scheme will have up to 110 scholarship awards this year allocated across the following countries Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Gabon, Mauritania, Cote d’Ivoire, French Guiana and Bangladesh.

This year, fifty scholarship awards from the Tullow Group Scholarship Scheme are available to Ghanaians, who meet the set criteria through a competitive process.

Ten of the available scholarships would be set aside for scholars from the six coastal districts of the Western Region bordering the Jubilee Field.

“This is a huge investment in capacity building by any estimation,” Dr Oteng-Adjei said and urged beneficiaries of the scheme to return home after their training so as to create the opportunity for others to also benefit.

The scheme will be run through a partnership between Tullow and the British Council – an internationally recognised service provider in the area of scholarship management and partnership brokerage in higher education around the world.

Mr Aidan Heavey, CEO of Tullow Oil Plc, said: “This whole scheme is about developing potential – the potential that Tullow sees around it in Africa every day.  Developing local talent for the oil industry makes good business sense for us, and it makes sense for oil producing countries to develop talent beyond oil.

This is a great opportunity for anyone who has thought about this and wants to make a real contribution to the future of their country.”

GNA