Tullow Ghana committed to skills transfer – Managing Director

Tullow Ghana has reiterated its commitment to skills transfer and the actualisation of the dream of Ghanaian entities acquiring the requisite capacities to lead oil and gas activities with an organic team from Ghana to ensure rapid national development.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the 2022 Local Content Conference and Exhibition in Takoradi, the Managing Director of Tullow Ghana, Mr. Wissam Al Monthiry said Tullow has prioritised local content investment through four important strategic pillars, as a good corporate citizen committed to the cause.

The company’s initial pillar focus is its commitment to investment in the country’s oil and gas resources, which informed its 10-year Value Maximisation Plan (VMP) worth over $4 billion in investment in the country.

“Just in 2022, the first two years of the VMP has yielded $1.3 billion in revenue to the country in the form of taxes, royalties and oil entitlement.”

The second of the pillars, according to the Managing Director, was the localisation of its workforce. “Tullow Ghana today has a workforce of about 78 percent Ghanaians.”

He said Tullow is working towards its ultimate target of having more than 90 per cent Ghanaian workforce in the shortest possible time.  He explained that even though it has not been an easy task, the company is committed to it and has made it “an absolute priority.”

Mr Al Monthiry said the localisation of Tullow’s supply chain remains one of its main and third strategic pillar to deliver local content. “In this regard we work with the Petroleum Commission, and since inception, Tullow and its partners have spent about $16-billion in contracts issued to support the operations of its two oil fields (Jubilee and TEN).

“Let me say here that $11.5-billion out of the contract value of $16-billion went to the combination of Ghanaian and their joint venture partners as well as indigenous Ghanaian companies,” he explained.

As the Operator of both Jubilee and TEN fields, Mr Al Monthiry noted that he was pleased with the increasing rapid pace of growth of indigenous Ghanaian companies working within its supply chain year-on-year.

“We have a plan to get the target increased and currently we are working to ensure that our Director of Operations position on the production FPSO platforms should be Ghanaian by 2025.”

The final of the four pillars, he said, was creating an enabled Country and National Oil Company to manage Ghana’s resources long after Tullow – where it is “Tullow’s obligation to develop the capability of the country to take over long after we are gone and dominate the value chain.”

“We want to see that the national oil company, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the industry regulator, the Petroleum Commission, the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas) develop their capabilities to head the charge,” he stressed.

With Tullow’s expertise, technology and capital notwithstanding, he said a section of the public suspect the company may not be committed to that cause at all.

He said the truth remains that “It is rather the opposite, it is our absolute priority, commitment and obligation to empower institutions, companies and agencies in the country to harness the vast resources the country is endowed with for the benefit of the people.”

Mr Al Monthiry maintained that Tullow indeed is keen on offering its expertise as a good corporate citizen to Ghana and the people of Ghana, to enable the country to produce and manage the space many decades after Tullow moves out.

The moderator, Prof. Emeritus Omowumi Iledare, Professor Chair of the Institute of Oil and Gas, University of Cape Coast, said local content is about value creation and value addition in “using goods and services produced locally to support the upstream petroleum industry in the oil nations, including Ghana.”

“Using what is available locally means value can be created, capacity can be expanded, the economy can be sustained and young people will have a place to go instead of the youth representing the future, migrating,” he said.

He said it should be on record that for maximisation of benefits when it comes to the petroleum industry, “everything starts with local content.”

The Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere-Darko Mensah commended the conference organisers for choosing the region, saying “We in the Western Region, it is our prayer that, aside from local content we also have what we call local-local since we are the host region.”