Ghana Gas constructs corporate headquarters at Atuabo
Work on a $6.3 million office complex and trauma centre for the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas) has started at Atuabo in the Western Region.
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The project, which is under the phase two of the Western Corridor Gas Infrastructure project, is to ensure that the operational headquarters of the company is relocated to the region.
The administrative facility which should have started about three years ago delayed due to the long process of approving the design and negotiations with the main contractor.
Breaking myth
The move, according to the company, was to end the tendency of siting the headquarters of all companies, especially those in the extractive sector, in the city instead of their operational areas.
Speaking to journalists at Atuabo, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Gas, Dr George Adjah Sipa-Yankeh, said the current project was not new but part of the larger gas infrastructure project captured under the same funding.
“The phase one of the gas infrastructure with components such as offshore pipelines, 111-kilometre lines to Aboadze, 75 kilometres to Prestea Huni-Valley and the plant itself, the loading gantry, have been completed,” he stated.
Office complex
He explained that the operations of Ghana Gas currently required an office complex which would support more than 200 staff members working on a daily basis.
The facility, he said, when completed, would serve as a multi-purpose and multi-functional complex of the company, which had factored into its design all social and environmental safety requirements.
“It is also going to serve as a central gas command centre for Ghana Gas operations so that the event of unplanned catastrophe in any part of the plant from the offshore through the plant and onshore lines will be contained to save lives.”
“We also refer to it as a command centre because in case of any unforeseen disaster, it will serve as a point where proper coordination and deployment will be carried out to save situations,” he noted.
As the country moves towards the gas economy where gas is produced and shipped through onshore facilities, the centre becomes central to Ghana Gas operations.
The trauma centre
The trauma centre, he said, would have a 40-bed capacity and was designed to meet international standards that had been adopted by the country’s Medical and Dental Council.
With a facility such as Ghana Gas, Dr Yankey said it was important to factor in the trauma centre for prompt response, surgery, stabilisation of patients and resuscitation in case of an emergency.
Aside from the critical ones, he said the system had been designed to provide outpatients department (OPD) services to the staff and members of the larger host community.
Decentralisation
Dr Yankey said the board and management of Ghana Gas took the decision to relocate its operations to the Western Region after carefully analysing situations in Accra and other countries.
He said it was important to note that many of the companies had their operational offices in Accra, but the company felt it was necessary to locate the corporate headquarters in the heart of the operations.