The Petroleum Commission has announced that it will soon roll out new guidelines for the upstream petroleum sector. The proposed guidelines will focus on salaries, and employment opportunities.
They are expected to strengthen local content participation and bridge the pay gap between Ghanaian and expatriate workers in the sector.
A report in 2014 showed that Ghanaian local workers in the oil and gas sector were the least paid with a 222 percent disparity.
Speaking at a workshop on job creation and human resource development in Ghana’s upstream petroleum sector, the Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Egbert Faibille Jnr indicated that effective enforcement of the existing guidelines will begin in June while work continues on proposed ones.
He said the Commission’s approach to ensuring greater participation of indigenous Ghanaian companies in the oil and gas sector “is very simple” noting, “We best serve the nation when we translate the exploitation of resources not only into profits but also into jobs and opportunities.”
The Commission, he said expected all contractors as soon as practicable to make use of local companies, service suppliers and local workforce “as a deliberate business strategy.”
He said the Commission seeks to harmonise the need for competition, quality in delivery and the need to grow local content in employment creation in the country.
“The starting point for us is to help local companies that support oil and gas businesses to setup and operate successfully by offering job opportunities to Ghanaians,” he said, adding “only recently a directive was issued to all companies involved in the upstream sector to provide evidence of receipts for purchases made and payment for services within Ghana starting from January 2018.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
