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French business team seeks local partnership in upstream oil and gas sector

A French business delegation is in the country to explore investment opportunities in the Oil and Gas Industry. The team is also seeking to engage local businesses in the burgeoning oil and gas sector for a possible partnership.
The GEP-AFTP, French Oil and Gas Suppliers Council, led by the Business Development Manager, Mr Claude Bouty,  has already held  some discussions with  the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, on possible areas of investment in the oil and gas sector.

According to him, Ghana continues to attract more companies due to its political stability, stating that they would engage with their Ghanaian counterparts to look at investment opportunities.

He said the GEP-AFTP represented the interests of about 180 suppliers of equipment and services to the international oil and gas industry, which had a significant activity in France.

Already, there are calls for an increased local participation in the petrochemical industry since the country discovered oil in commercial quantities.

A Local Content Consultant, Kwame Gyantuah is advocating for local companies to be included in the value chain operations of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

According to him, the move will ensure Ghanaians are part of the development in the petrochemical industry.

In a bid to ensuring that Ghanaians benefitted as much as possible from the oil find, Cabinet approved a local content policy in 2010 to be the platform for achieving the goals of the oil and gas sector with active participation by Ghanaian citizens in all roles, at all levels and in all activities relating to the oil and gas value chain.

The local content legislative instrument has been carved out of the local content policy framework and its purpose is to provide for the development of local content in Ghana and also act as a mechanism for the coordination, monitoring and governance of Ghanaian content.

Dr Adjaye noted that the policy document was a boost to local investor participation in the emerging oil and gas trade and encourages fairness in participation between local and foreign companies.

Despite the prospects stated in the document, there are several challenges that are likely to hinder its successful execution, some of which include relatively undeveloped infrastructure, absence of comprehensive and integrated national capacity building programme, inadequate training centres and institutions, poor concept of time and quality, absence of empowered and resourced agency to implement laws within the sector and limited capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises in mobilising capital for expansion into the sector.

Mr Buah said Ghana’s relationship with France has been solid and is growing stronger; adding that, the record of French companies operating in Ghana is something to be proud of.

He said the government of Ghana is bent on ensuring transparency in the oil and gas sector and has passed laws to guide its operations in the industry.

By Suleiman Mustapha/Graphic Business/Ghana

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