Management of Tullow Ghana Limited (TGL), a multinational oil and gas exploration and production company, on Friday, organized a workshop for major players in the industry to build their capacity in offshore disaster preparedness.
The workshop was also to inform stakeholders on measures to adopt to rapidly respond to eventualities that may occur during the oil and gas exploration and production in Ghana as well as to learn from the Piper Alpha rig explosion that hit off the north-east coast of Scotland on July, 6 1988 so as to avert an occurrence.
Speaking to journalists in Accra, Mr Gordon Hanna, Environmental Health Safety Lead of TGL, said the workshop offered the company the opportunity to interact with experts in the industry in order to share experiences about mistakes and successes in the exploration and production of oil and gas in other countries and how to avert any disaster in the country.
"What we are doing is to give them real scenarios in the gas and oil industry which Ghana has not seen before so that the experts in the industry will be able to assess the resources they need to prepare and to deploy," he said.
Mr Hanna said that historically there had been lots of tragedies that had claimed lives and properties in the oil and gas industry worldwide.
He stressed that such disasters could have been avoided if there was efficient coordination and harmonization of duties and responsibilities of the agencies involved.
"Accidents are tragedies. But the biggest tragedy is when people do not learn from such tragedies to prevent such future occurrence," Mr Hanna said.
He said that there was the need for Ghana to learn from such scenarios and to map out strategies to effectively manage and prevent an oil and gas disaster.
Mr Hanna called on the media to be circumspective in their reportage especially on tragedies in order to avoid situations where panic, civil unrest and chaos were created as a result of inaccurate and misinformation presented in the media.
He said it was important for people to be well informed so as to allay their fears and added that when properly managed, the oil rig could be the safest place to be.
"Rather than speculating, the media would need to cross check facts. Everybody fears something they do not understand but once you understand, you feel safe. I will rather be at an oil rig than in a fishing boat," Mr Hanna said.
He gave the assurance that the company would continue to be transparent to the public in its exploration and production and would not shelve information from the media.
Piper Alpha was a North Sea oil production platform operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Ltd. An explosion and the resulting fire destroyed it on July 6, 1988, killing 167 men with only 59 survivors. To date it is the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms of lives lost and impact to industry.
Source: GNA
DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
Tags:
DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
Latest Stories
-
Saminu Abdul Rasheed smashes national record again with 9.84s sprint in Georgia
1 hour -
Blekusu Coastal project: We’re reclaiming our coastlines – Housing Minister
4 hours -
Pricey plantains push Ghana’s market sellers to diversify
4 hours -
Full list: NPP delegates approve 54 reform motions, reject proposals on youth age, election supervision
5 hours -
WAFCON 2024: Cynthia made it easy – Chantelle hails goalkeeper after penalty saves
5 hours -
Cyber Security Authority boss suspended over use of military bodyguard
5 hours -
WAFCON 2024: I want to make history – Grace Asantewaa dreams of lifting the trophy
5 hours -
Afenyo-Markin accuses NDC of rebranding and claiming credit for NPP projects
5 hours -
2024 WAFCON: Grace Asantewa shines as Black Queens reach semis
5 hours -
WAFCON 2024: Ghana beat Algeria 4-2 on penalties to book semi-final spot for the first time since 2016
5 hours -
NPP Delegates reject motion to shift polling station selection oversight to regional committees
5 hours -
2024 WAFCON: Black Queens set up semifinal clash with hosts Morocco
5 hours -
Dr. Amuasi champions healthy sustainable socio-ecological systems thinking in Lancet One Health Commission Report
6 hours -
Without unity, we’re just individuals with ambition – Afenyo-Markin
6 hours -
Rebecca Tweneboah Darko: Scattered thoughts; Scary times
6 hours