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Being the largest basin, the Voltaian Basin is believed to hold enormous oil and gas potential which could propel Ghana into the league of major oil producing countries in Africa. However, this basin is highly unexplored., because it has been scientifically proven that exploration of this basin carries higher risk than most conventional petroleum plays because of its age and probable geological history.

The government has given authorisation to GNPC to spearhead E&P activities in the basin with the aim to build local capacities in E&P activities in-country.

This session will discuss the current exploratory activities, prospects of establishing petroleum system in the basin, and the role IGCs can play in opening up the prospectivity of the Voltaian and East Keta Basins.

After 8 years of implementation of L.I.2204, it is beyond doubt that technology transfer is an important strategy to enhance the competitiveness of local businesses and deepen local participation in the industry. Through joint venture formations and other partnership arrangements, the industry has pursued various strategies to expedite the transfer of technical know-how, expertise, and technology to Indigenous Ghanaian Companies.

This session focuses on the emerging threats and opportunities for technology transfer in the wake of energy transition. Panellists will discuss the strategies to be adopted by IGCs to develop transferable skills and capacity to take advantage of emerging technologies to enhance their participation in the industry.

Natural Gas is one of the transitional fuels considered under the energy transition. The Republic of Ghana has circa 1,395.74Bcf in reserves, produces circa 320mscf/d and continues to explore more gas, to meet market demands. Additionally, it is believed that gas demand will keep increasing due to economic activities and therefore there is the need to explore more gas and produce the gas, to meet market demand for socio- economic development.

Gas sectors across the world thrives when there are well-established policies and governance systems, laws and other market structures which are linked and coordinated for the development of effective gas market, infrastructural development and optimised operational activities.

The Petroleum Commission, under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy has evaluated the cause of the huge number of expatriate welders in the oil and gas sector. The results revealed that, although there are thousands (1000s) of Ghanaian welders available, especially in the informal sector, however, most of the local welders do not have the internationally recognized training and certification needed to work in the oil and gas industry. Formal welding training is therefore imperative for capacity building because it is the foundation of all engineering and fabrication activities.

Accredited certification indisputably demonstrates compliance to a management system standard. Hence, the Ghana Welding Bureau was recently established to provide certifications to Ghanaian welders, comparable to their counterparts in other countries. The objective is to give oil and gas companies and stakeholders greater assurance that the competence of locally trained welders has been assessed and confirmed by an internationally recognized accreditation body. This will accelerate   the Government’s policy on job role localisation and to achieve and maintain a degree of control for Ghanaians in the industry.

This session will highlight the prospects and challenges of establishing an internationally recognised certification body in-country and the strategies to be adopted to localise technical positions in the industry.

The discovery of oil and gas culminated in heightened expectations for Ghanaians and local businesses. However, doing business in the upstream petroleum industry is highly capital intensive, and the requirements are equally high and stringent. It is a known fact that majority of the existing companies are start-up organisations and doing business in the upstream sector is a challenging situation for such companies, especially, where there is no clear-cut policy in support of start-ups, access to finance is costly, and there is apathy for doing business with start-ups.

This session seeks to explore the challenges faced by start-ups in setting up businesses in oil and gas industry and the strategies to adopt to ensure their sustainability in the industry.

Many companies in the upstream petroleum sector spend millions of dollars annually to develop capacities of their employees to enhance their performance. In Ghana, the local content policy identifies inadequate capacity as one constraining variable in local content development, hence the Regulations requires training of local staff by oil and gas companies as a means of boosting local employment. The question has been whether capacity building has a significant effect on employee performance and job creation in Ghana’s upstream oil and gas industry. Does training of local personnel always answer job role localisation problems in the industry? Is the aspect of capacity building by IOCs which deals with the development of the individual or a group of people appropriate? Are IOCs given proper attention to capacity building and job role localisation?

This topic will highlight on the current initiatives adopted by government to develop Ghanaian expertise, the appropriate capacity development models, and strategic interventions to enhance expertise development and create job opportunities through job role localisation for Ghanaians.

Oil companies are constantly challenged on how to manage assets that are running beyond their design life. As upstream petroleum assets continue to age, it is important that the industry commence discussions on strategies to manage aging assets to extend their lifespan to service matured and marginal fields in a safe, efficient, and reliable manner. With deepening of local content in Ghana over the last decade, IGCs are in position to capitalise on existing capacities developed in mid-technical operations and expand scope of operations to cover onshore and offshore asset management.

Panellists will share their expertise on managing ageing assets, strategies to optimize the life expectancy of such assets and the role of Indigenous Ghanaian Companies in achieving same.

Ghana like many emerging resource-rich countries have small and marginal fields in and around Development and Production areas of exiting fields and near-shore. These fields have significant potential for commercialization with appropriate fiscal and regulatory incentives and under right market conditions.

The session focuses on marginal field development in the Ghanaian upstream petroleum industry, the opportunities for local businesses, strategies, policies, and regulatory initiatives to develop local capacities to optimize the exploitation of hydrocarbon resources in the industry.

Countries across the globe are consistently competing for investments in a period where the economic outlook looks uncertain.

Over the years, a number of regulatory reforms in Ghana have been put in place to facilitate the attraction of foreign direct investment in the upstream petroleum industry to serve as a catalyst for upstream growth. However, many are of the opinion that the implementation of the reforms still stifles international businesses.

This session will provide a quick overview of the business environment in Ghana and discuss how to improve the policies and initiatives to enhance the way of doing business in Ghana. Panelists from government institutions, trade associations and industry players will discuss issues such as government policies and Investment requirements in Ghana, tax regime, and company registration processes.