Ghanaian oil and gas industry workers are among the least paid in the world, an annual report by Hays Oil and Gas has revealed.
Vietnam and Sudan took the second lowest and lowest positions respectively.
The report was compiled by oil and gas recruitment experts, Hays Oil and Gas and industry researchers, Oil and Gas Job Search.
The 2013 report, which also contains an outlook on 2014, looked at 24 industry disciplines, sampled more than 7,200 employers and 24,000 other respondents in the industry across 53 countries.
It compared salaries of the locals with that of the expats in the same country. Sudan was the lowest with US$24,100 average annual salary for locals, compared with US$77,000 for expats, which indicate a 219.5% disparity between locals and expats in that country.
Oil and gas companies in Vietnam pay the second lowest salaries to locals. The locals in that country get an average annual salary of US$26,600 compared with a US$142,200 for expat. The difference is a whopping 434.59%.
Meanwhile, Ghanaians in the industry get US$26,800 averagely every year, which compared unfavorably with the US$128,500 that their expat counterparts get every year. This shows a disparity of 379.48%.
Meanwhile, both locals and expats work under similar hazardous conditions on offshore facilities.
Other countries
The report also shows, in at least four of the 53 countries; Canada, Netherlands, Norway and United Kingdom, locals were paid higher than their expat counterparts.
The highest paid locals are the Norwegians; they get US$179,200 per annum, compared with US$110,400 for expats working in that country. In Canada, locals got 130,000, while the expats got US$119,200. In the UK, locals got US$94,200, and the expats got US$91,800; while in the Netherlands the local got US$111,000 as against US$101,500 for expats.
Meanwhile, in Africa, South Africa pays the highest salaries to locals. It stood at US$63,100 compared with US$76,300 paid to expats in that country, while Australia paid the highest salaries to expats; US$164,000 per annum, and India paid the lowest to expats; US$63,700.
The figures also showed that the lowest paid to expats, which was US$63,700 in India, was still higher than the highest paid to Africans, which was the US$63,100 in South Africa.
In its executive summary, the report indicated that generally, oil and gas industry salaries dropped across the globe in 2013, adding that, it was necessary because salaries had increased for two consecutive years prior to 2013.
Indeed, in 2011 Ghana did not show up in the Hays report, but in 2012 the average annual salaries for locals in Ghana stood US$40,200, and it increased to US$40,500 in 2013 before it fell to the current 26,800. Meanwhile, in 2012 that of expats in Ghana stood at US$139,00 and it dropped to US$121,600 in 2013 before rising again to US$128,500 early this year.
The report also noted there were concerns with infrastructure, needed skills among locals, political and economic instability, security and corruption in Africa, which slowed down investment in the continent’s oil and gas industry, despite the fact that the continent supplies 20% of the world’s oil and holds 8% of deep water reserves.
The Hays report however encouraged investors to still put more money into Africa because the potential on the continent, particularly in the east, outweighs the concerns.
Business World (with notes from myjoyonline)