Health, Safety and Environmental Risk Management in Ghana’s Upstream Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

This paper examine the major health, safety and environmental risk management in Ghana’s upstream oil and gas industry. There were four main specific objectives of the study which included examining the main occupational health hazards; the level of employees’ awareness and attitudes to HSE risk issues; the extent of management commitment to managing HSE and finally, the challenges confronting the management in addressing HSE risk issues. The study was based on the views of 105 staff from the study area. A self-administered questionnaire was the main research instrument. The results from the survey were analyzed and the first major findings were following. Considering the first objective, the study found that there are five main health hazards namely: physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychological hazards. In the case of the second objective, it was found that the management attitudes toward occupational hazards and safety practices were positive. When it comes to the objective three, it was found that the level of management commitment to managing HSE risks in Ghana was very high. Finally, on the issue of challenges, it was discovered that there were various challenges of which the two most important ones were overlapping authorities and responsibilities among ministries and lack of employee and community involvement in policy making process. Based on these it was recommended that authorities and responsibilities among ministries should be well spelt out. Additionally, there should be both employees and the community involvement in policy making process.