The Petroleum Commission has commended Baker Hughes/GE on its decision to train five Ghanaians to become internationally accredited and certified welders.

The training which is estimated at a cost of $250,000 is part of efforts to support the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity programme. The programme is aimed at building the capacity of the Ghanaian youth by equipping them with the relevant skills set required for the upstream petroleum industry.

The 8-month to a year course in stainless steel welding, at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, will equip the beneficiaries on their return, with the capacity to train many more Ghanaians to support the industry.

The students are drawn from KIKAM, Takoradi Technical University and the Regional Maritime University.

They will benefit from a package, that caters for their tuition, visa, accommodation and transportation.

This effort is in response to a call made by the CEO of the Petroleum Commission, Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr. for Baker Hughes to support Ghana’s local content development efforts and the AOGCP; when a delegation led by the Vice President responsible for Africa Operations, Ado Oseragbaje paid a courtesy call on the Commission, September last year.

This effort according to Egbert, will help reduce the Expatriate-Ghanaian ratio in the upstream petroleum industry. 

In that meeting, the company assured the PC of its commitment to support the AOGC programme by hinting of an already existing training of about 100 Ghanaian students at an online digital academy at a cost of $6,000 each.

Mr Faibille Jnr. while commending also urged them to comply with the relevant laws which include L.I 2204 among others.

He also assured that with the path taken to invest in training Ghanaian welders, Baker Hughes will register its name in the annals of the Ghanaian upstream petroleum local content and localisation efforts.