Some energy experts at the Ghana International Petroleum Conference (GhIPCON) are urging government to speedily develop a policy framework to back its vision of creating a petroleum hub in the country.
This, they believe will ensure effective regulation of the over 50 billion dollar project.
Government is seeking to develop a petroleum hub which is expected to include refineries, tank farms, pipelines and other infrastructure to help create jobs and raise more revenue for the government.
Speaking on a panel discussion at the Ghana International Petroleum Conference, an energy expert Tan Wooi Leong called for an effective collaboration between the private and the public sector for a successful implementation of the project.
“The public sector needs to listen to what the private sector needs, and from there develop the plans and policies, or regulations to support them. Then the private sector needs to do its part to comply with the set regulations.”
Tan Wooi Leong also called for the need to go beyond just maintaining political stability and create the needed environment to attract investors.
“Political stability is important and good to have but there are more enablers that are required for such a vision to come to fruition.”
Meanwhile government is seeking support from the Singaporean government for the development of the petroleum hub.
A Deputy Minister for Energy, Muhammed Amin Adam stated that the country must be ready to provide the human resource needed for the hub.
“The skillset to fill in the skills gap is so important, and we are working towards improving the skillset of Ghanaians for the industry. We are also going into a co-operation agreement with Singapore,” he said.
“We want to learn how they did it, how they trained their people. We have so far held discussions with the Singaporean authority. We want to have that co-operation agreement with Singapore to support us to be able to train Ghanaians and allied industries,” he added.
Dr. Amin Adam made the comments on the second day of Ghana International Petroleum Conference (GhIPCon), as part of a panel discussion on the theme “Realising the vision of a Petroleum Hub: How?. It had other panelists such as Alhassan Tampuli of the NPA and Jonathan Norton of Vitol.
The third and final day of the conference witnessed more panel discussions, as well as a presentation from the Dangote Refinery by the Technical Advisor to the Group CEO of Dangote Industries, Engr. Banajide Soyode.
Source: citibusinessnews.com
