A member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has hailed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana National Gas Company, Dr Ben Asante, for putting the pieces together in his quest to ensure an efficient and productive management of the state institution.
Razak Kojo Opoku said his appointment to head the Ghana Gas Company has led to some strategic and tactical reforms that have firmly repositioned the institution to be productive and profit-oriented.
President Nana Akufo-Addo on January 30, 2017, appointed Dr Asante as the acting CEO of the institution based at Atuabo in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region.
“Since his assumption of office as CEO for such a strategic national asset for the country, he has used competent locals in the operations and management of the company, which has in effect saved the country from paying millions of dollars to Chinese nationals and other expatriates who were managing the facility,” he said.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Opoku revealed that upon assuming office Dr Asante realised that the Ghana Gas workers were the lowest-paid among the employees of the oil and gas industry players and therefore made recommendations and sought approval to increase their salaries and their conditions of service, based on this the workers’ salaries were increased from 30-85 percent, “a remarkable achievement which ought to be commended.”
He said it was also remarkable to note that initially, the company had 150 workers, but can now boast of more than 650 workers who have diligently been trained in health, safety and environment without recording any major incidents of which the company will soon pay close to 20 million cedis as dividend to the government.
The company also recently commissioned an ultra-modern Gas Company at AB Bokazo to be used as an operational office, which was built from scratch.
Some of the company’s achievements include two successful tie-ins at Sanzule, which increased production of Gas, the completion of the reserve flow project, and massive Corporate Social Responsibility projects in the Western Region among others.
The NPP man revealed that in spite of all his hard work and achievements in shaping and promoting sustainable power delivery with Ghana Gas, some people seem not to be happy, as usual, and are doing everything they could to hunt the nobleman who has given all he has for the country.
Plans, ploys and tricks are being hatched to get rid of this nobleman with all sorts of allegations against him. However, Dr Asante is not deterred by these manipulators and is determined to continue with his good works.
Dr Asante has over 25 years of experience in the Oil and Gas Industry. He was the Technical Director of Ghana’s first Gas Infrastructure project and also developed the gas infrastructure master plan for Ghana in 2008.
He has also served as a consultant to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and provided engineering services, project management and technical support for various projects across the world including UAE, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico, Russia, Thailand and USA.
Dr Asante has worked for major companies including Nova/TransCanada and Enron and Jacobs Engineering.
Dr Asante is a product of Mfantsipim School and holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science Technology (KNUST Ghana), and an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary, Canada.
He also has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London/University of Calgary, and has taught gas processing and pipeline engineering at Imperial College, UK and KNUST, Ghana.
