International Oil, Gas business confab opens

In recent times, the government of The Gambia has been focusing on beefing up its human resource base in areas that had scarcely been prominent.

And about six months ago some 25 young Gambians returned home with bachelor’s degrees in Petroleum Engineering and two others with master’s degrees in Reservoir Engineering and Geo Physics from the Republic of China on Taiwan.

It is against this background that the Office of the President, in collaboration with Berry Hill, The Gambia, organised a two-day training seminar as the first step to introduce the knowledge of operations on accounting procedures of International Oil and Gas business to the relevant stakeholders in the petroleum sector of The Gambia.

The training session kicked off on Tuesday, at Committee Room 2 of the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Senegambia, and it aims at further enhancing the professional capacities of these graduates. Arrangements are also ongoing for further training in various specialties of the petroleum industry; key among these will be petroleum economics, law, accounting, taxation and environmental management.

The two-day interactive session will, in addition to accounting procedure, provide an overview of  access of petroleum cooperation from exploration to production, and it will be conducted by Price Water House Coopers, one of the leading International Oil and Gas Accounting, Auditing firms in the World.

Operating in 150 countries worldwide, this firm has more than 155000 employees. It has been providing training in many countries and for many international companies for more than 35 years.  In his opening statement, Ebrima Camara, permanent secretary, Office of the President, said the two-day training will enhance interaction with experts from Price Water House Coopers, and provide opportunity for sharing of knowledge in petroleum operations and accounting procedures. He implored on the participants to make good use of the opportunity, urging them to ask as much questions as possible to enable them enhance their knowledge. This, he said, will be important because it allows them to clear all doubts about petroleum operations in the country.

He expressed sincere thanks and appreciations to Berry Hill Company, for the fruitful partnership with the government of The Gambia. PS Camara, who was deputising for the secretary general and head of civil service, recalled that Berry Hill had acquired two-exploration license with The Gambia government in September 2006.  Since then, he added, the company had carried out geological and geophysical assessment of the two areas.

And he went on to say that the company had always been supportive in the area of training, building the capacities of the petroleum commission for Gambia National Petroleum Company in critical areas of need. He hailed the Gambian leader for being the driving force behind all these achievements, and count on his continued support to take the sector to a level consistent with the strife towards the Vision 2020, as well as its economic growth and development objectives.

Urging the participants to take the training very seriously to ensure that they derive maximum benefits from it, PS Camara expressed hope that the knowledge gained would better equip them in their drive in uplifting the petroleum sector.