Prime News Ghana

Oil workers protest against replacement by foreign nationals

By Sam Edem
Oil workers at the OCTP site
Oil workers at the OCTP site
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Ghanaian staff of the ENI Onshore Receiving Facility (OCTP- TEN) project at Sanzule of the Western region, have put down their tools in protest against what they consider wrongful dismissal by the management.

The indigenous oil workers claim the management has in recent months engaged in a gradual replacement of Ghanaians with foreign nationals on the field, although the locals hold same level of qualification in academic training or experience as the foreigners.

The workers declining to name some specific cases however said, the practice was against government’s commitment to increasing local or indigenous participation in the upstream oil & gas sub- sector: a commitment mandated by the Ghana’s local content law.

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They also pointed out that the replacement practice is a direct violation of their three month renewable contracts with Amaga Oilfield and Orsam that has been operative for nearly a year now.

The management of ENI is yet to respond to the workers,  reeffectively halting the OCTP fields project which is expected to feed Ghana’s thermal power system from next year - 2018 to 2036.