Tullow Ghana Limited (TGL) is undertaking a four-week engagement exercise with fishing communities in the Ahanta West Municipality and Shama District to sensitise them on the upcoming offshore installation works as part of the Jubilee South-east expansion project.
The exercise by the company, which operates the Jubilee and TEN fields, is the first phase of community engagements with stakeholders to foster greater cooperation with stakeholders.
According to a statement issued by the company in Takoradi on Wednesday, the exercise is in line with the company and its partners’ commitment to maintain a secured environment within its operational areas.
The engagement exercise, which will be held at selected locations in the Western Region, would bring together the Ghana National Canoe Owners and Fishermen, fishmongers, representatives from the security services, including Ghana Navy, Marine Police, Fisheries Commission as well as representatives from the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs), and traditional authorities.
Among other things, the statement noted that the engagement would discuss the company’s safety measures, regulations and policies regarding the mitigation of risks and management of potential impacts; especially those that could emanate offshore during the sub-sea installation works due to commence in the Jubilee South-east field.
The statement said the highlights of discussions would include offshore security measures, JSE development, voluntary principles and human rights, the significance of Navy-fisherman communication and safe-sea access.
Additionally, it would also focus on issues of incursion rates (operational updates), the application of maritime laws to recalcitrant fishermen by the Ghana Marine Police, grievance redress mechanism, socio-economic investment, and impact mitigation initiatives.
The statement added that stakeholders, who have participated so far, particularly fisher folks, have reaffirmed their commitment to reducing incursions and emphasising the need to safeguard offshore assets.
“The communities engaged so far agreed to support the regulatory bodies, particularly the Fisheries Enforcement Unit by reporting recalcitrant persons involved in Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and those that are found culpable of incurring on the Exclusive Zone (EZ) of the company’s operations,” the statement added.
As a member of the community, it said Tullow’s projects and programmes, such as Fisherman’s Anchor, Scholar’s Aid, Free Senior High School (SHS) project, Educate to Innovate with STEM, kindergartens, and the livelihood projects, have yielded positive success stories.
To this end, the statement said the stakeholders have lauded the projects and programmes as being immensely helpful to them, hence an encouragement to Tullow and its partners to continue such projects.
BY TIMES REPORTER
