Mohammed Amin Adams
The Ministry of Energy has through the Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth (GOGIG) program, launched a Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Manual for the country’s energy sector.
The manual provides basic requirements for developing and maintaining a positive safety culture in energy sector organisations while striving for continuous improvement.
Speaking at the launch on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, in Accra, the Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of Petroleum, Mohammed Amin Adams, said the country’s energy sector has witnessed an immense growth over the past few years and government would continue to develop and implement policies and programmes to ensure that the growth was sustainable and done in a manner with minimal negative impacts to people, the environment, properties and national reputation.
He revealed that the Ministry has also made substantial progress on the drafting of a new National Energy Policy to provide the framework for guiding operations within Ghana’s energy sector as well as ensure a fair balance between the aspirations of Government and the interests of industry players, academia, local communities, civil society and other key stakeholders.
The Energy policy, according to him, also comprehensively addresses issues of Health Safety Security and Environment.
The Deputy Minister underscored that the sustainability of the energy sector resided in a vibrant Health, Safety Security and Environmental sector that was continually reviewed to meet changing trends.
As a result, it was the collective responsibility of stakeholders in the sector to ensure that the change in HSSE culture starting with the launch of the manual remained a part of them.
In line with this, the Ministry with inputs from relevant Ministries has drafted an MoU on Incident Investigation, he said, adding that the MoU would be signed between the Ministry and other relevant Ministries whose agencies undertake incident investigations in the energy sector.
He stressed that “the aim of the MoU is to coordinate the incident investigation process and the monitoring of recommendation measures implementation.”
Chief Director at the Energy Ministry, Lawrence Apaalse, entreated all stakeholders to consider the manual as an introductory step to transition the energy sector into an epoch where activities are mainstream on a culture of safety.
BY Melvin Tarlue