Ghana's Energy Sector, Oil and Gas News

Thirty-eight journalists are attending a 3-day training workshop to sharpen their skills and to better police Ghana’s burgeoning oil and gas industry.

The training the being facilitated by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum will also ensure that journalists demand accountability and transparency, ask the right questions as well as understand how the industry works.

Broad areas to be covered include introduction to oil and gas and how the industry works, introduction to the industry’s law and policy, local content, exploration/production, oil, gas, the environment, decommissioning as well as developments in Ghana’s involvement in the petroleum sector.

The 38 participants were selected from private and public media houses, and they would also be introduced to issues of power and the direction government is heading to ensure the attainment of stable energy for the country.

Others providing facilitation are Go Study Abroad (GSA) and the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEDPMLP) of the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom.
 
Speaking on behalf of the Energy and Petroleum Minister at the opening ceremony, the Deputy Head of Communications at the Ministry, Mr. Ras Liberty Amenorwode said the move was to improve reportage of petroleum and power issues.
 

He said the government recognized the importance of the oil and gas industry to the economic development of the country and the importance of a media with a clear understanding of the dynamics of the sector.

“The oil and gas sector is very complex and that journalists being the media who are the fourth estate of the realm needed to be taken through the details of how the industry worked to enable efficient reportage on the sector,” he said.
 
“Government is ensuring that the new, passed local content law would allow adequate participation by Ghanaian companies in the oil and gas sector in order to maximize the country’s benefits from drilling oil in its territorial waters,” he said.

For his part, Pro. Stephen Dow of CEPMLP of the University of Dundee said it was important to take journalists through the dynamics of the oil and gas, local content, law and contracts among others.
 
The Chief Executive Officer of GSA, Ms Monorvi Asampong, said the training was an intensive one and would cover key terms and expressions, in the industry in Ghana.