Maritime university to run courses in oil safety

The Regional Maritime University (RMU) will begin a comprehensive course on safety in oil and gas exploration in August this year.
The Rector of the university, Capt Aaron Turkson, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic, explained that the course was being introduced to meet the needs of captains in the oil and gas industry for workers to secure safety skills training before they were engaged.
The training programme is expected to be run in collaboration with SMTC Malaysia, which is scheduled to provide the facilities and resources needed for the training.
Capt Turkson indicated that the training programme would employ stimulations, situational examples and imageries relevant to exploration and production operations in the industry.
The rector said the oil and gas industry was one of the most highly regulated industries in the world in terms of safety.
“The necessary measures must be put in place to achieve the maximum safety of employees in the industry,” he added.
He said even the most minor graze or cut would be recorded and the causes investigated. “Statistically, one is much safer working offshore than in many onshore industries,” he stated.
The rector indicated that the industry as a whole operated under very strict safety standards and government regulations to ensure the well-being of workers.
Therefore, companies, industry associations, communities and governments must collaborate to implement programmes that would help make the Ghanaian petroleum industry as safe as possible, he said.