Business leaders at the just-ended 2nd MTN-Business World Executive Breakfast meeting held on 4th august 2011 under the theme “Maximizing business opportunities in Oil and Gas” has unanimously agreed that effective partnerships with International oil and gas firms is the key to the growth of local content in the industry in Ghana.
The Executive Breakfast meeting, the second in the series to be organized by Business World Magazine with support from MTN, the nation’s biggest Telecom operator, attracted over 120 CEOs, entrepreneur’s business leaders from all sectors seeking to do some business in the oil and gas sector.
Speaking at the event, Victor Sunu-Attah, the Senior Petroleum Engineer at GNPC revealed that “for certain areas where Ghanaian companies qualify, opportunities are reserved for them.”
On his part Michael D. Murphy, Vice President and Country Manager, Kosmos Energy, counseled local companies which lack the needed expertise and skills in rendering services to oil exploration and production companies to find ways to form partnerships with foreign companies that already have such skills, in order to tap into the opportunities in the industry.
James McDougall, Vice President and Country Manager, Baker Hughes, a leading service company in the oil and gas industry said “Ghana should enact policies to attract more businesses,” adding that Ghanaian companies should, as a matter of necessity, “think bigger” since numerous opportunities abound in the industry.
Kwame Acquah, managing Director of RDFC, a business and market development firm working in the oil and gas sector, implored the government to assist Ghanaian companies to acquire the needed skills and technical know-how that will empower them to compete favourably in the oil and gas industry.