Tullow Oil, Ghana has assured the chiefs and people of the Western region of its support and adherence to the socio-cultural norms of the people to guarantee social and industrial harmony for the new industry to be beneficial to the country.
This came to light when officials of various oil companies working at the Jubilee Oil Fields off the shore of Cape Three Points, led by Tullow Oil, met members of the Western Regional House of Chiefs to brief them on their operations at the field as they prepared to start production by October 2010.
The Senior Social Responsibility Advisor to Tullow, Okyeame Ampadu-Agyei, in his presentation said the people of the region and the country as a whole should not panic about the impact of the operations at the oil fields.
He said the oil companies had a comprehensive corporate responsibility guideline that took a look at all areas including fisheries and other on-shore activities.
That aside, Okyeame Ampedu-Adjei said, the oil companies at the field would respect the socio-cultural diversity of the people and also contribute to the development of the local communities.
He said the expectations of the people of the region and that of the country were high and therefore, the companies would operate in an honest and transparent manner to win the trust of the people.
He assured the chiefs that Tullow and other exploration companies would also ensure complete adherence to environmental issues.
“I can assure you Nananom that issues of health, education, enterprise development, biodiversity conservation would be our top priority,” he said.
Okyeame Ampadu-Agyei said they would make use of the available opportunities and resources in the region for its growth and development.
He said the oil companies were also bracing themselves to address constraints militating against the development of the region to ensure total transformation through teamwork.
“We will not be working in isolation, we are all partners, and the focus will be on the transformation and creation of a good future for the people of Ghana,” he added.
Okyeame Ampadu-Agyei said there would also be the establishment of community-based social responsibility committees to ensure that whatever support or projects that were initiated would reflect the people’s will.
For his part, the President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, Awulae Attibrukusu III, said even though the oil industry was very young in the country, experience from neighbouring countries where the industry was booming had a lot of lessons for both corporate Ghana and local communities.
He said the chiefs appreciated the move by Tullow to meet with them and brief them on its current state of their operations.
He assured them of the support of the chiefs and urged them to ensure good environmental practices, saying, “I know an objective of the corporate world is to maximise profit, but that should not be at the expense of the environment we hold in trust for the generations unborn.”
“I trust that the environmental policies you have in place will as much as possible be in conformity with the country’s environmental protection laws to promote good environmental practices,” he added.
Awulae Attibrukusu said the community was grateful that the companies were aware that they would be operating within a multi-cultural environment and urged them to ensure that the tradition and culture of the people were respected.
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