Rigworld Training Centre Officially Opens

The Rigworld Training centre was Wednesday officially commissioned at a colourful ceremony Kejebril, near Takoradi in the Western Region.

Former president Jerry John Rawlings, EIB CEO Bola Ray, and the CEO of the National Petroleum Commission were among the dignitaries who attended the ceremony.

The $8.5 million training centre, the first of its kind in the West African Sub-region, is well equipped with advanced simulators to give trainees a better feel of what they may encounter in the field.

The centre will offer a variety of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) courses such as Basic Offshore Safety Induction Emergency Training (BOSIET), Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET), and Compressed Air Emergency Breathing System (CA-EBS), among others.

Other courses include Well Control and Intervention Training, Banksman and Slinger, and Forklift Training among a host of others.

Kofi Amoa-Abban, the Chief Executive Officer of Rigworld International, pointed out that the commissioning of the safety training centre would go a long way to help the Western region and Ghana as a whole.

The training centre forms part of his ten-year development plan for the people in the area, which is the latest addition of the Rigworld Local Content business initiative.

He also spoke of plans to increase courses at the centre to 200 by the next five years to further develop competent local human resources to support the oil and gas industry.

Again, he said there were plans to ensure that positions at the training centre were localized by the year 2020.

The construction of the training centre is the first phase of projects to be executed by the wholly Ghanaian owned oil and gas Service Company on a 4.2-acre plot of land.

The CEO revealed that his success as an entrepreneur was not achieved on s silver platter but through hard work, commitment and focus.

It is to this end that he has encouraged all Ghanaians irrespective of their family background to adhere to these virtues in their quest to succeed.

Dr Abban reiterated that he did not have things easy but had to work very hard to come this far. This, he said, explains why he always tells his staff that “hard work really pays.”

Egbert Faibille, acting Chief Executive Officer of Petroleum Commission, charged management to find ways of making the facility a regional centre of excellence by reaching out to countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania and even countries in East Africa who are now emerging as oil and gas producers.

He also charged them to develop and religiously implement maintenance programmes to ensure prolonged lifespan and beauty of the centre.

According to the General Manager of Rigworld Training Centre, Carlos Akyeampong, the initial idea to setup the centre was mooted in 2016, and was inspired by the need to find a good solution to the issue of lack of proper expertise in the oil and gas industry.

“The need to carry out jobs safely and competently within the oil and gas industry propelled the idea for an offshore training centre. This is also in line with the regulators of the oil and gas sector, Petroleum Commission’s commitments to as much as possible ensure local content and participation within the industry,” he said.

Source: thePublisher