US Ambassador commends Ghana

The United States Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Gene A. Cretz, has commended the country’s approach to the  management of waste generated from offshore oil and gas activities since 2007.

He said it was impressive to see an indigenous company, Zeal Environmental Technologies Limited (ZETL), rising to the occasion and handling one of the most important aspects of oil and gas activities, waste, which would otherwise have been managed outside the country at a higher cost. 

He said this after a tour of the premises of Zeal Environmental Technologies Limited, a wholly  Ghanaian-owned integrated waste transfer company at Nyankrom, near Sekondi in the Western Region.

Mr Cretz said he was impressed, with the company’s professionalism and the high technical pedigree of its personnel, coupled with the best technology and equipment, mostly sourced from America, used in the waste management.

He commended the partnership between ZETL and the jubilee partners, saying, “it is important that the partners identify an indigenous company in their quest to build a local capacity, which is very important.”

Co-operation with US firms

On how US companies could promote local content, he said “our companies are already doing well even at the face of the controversies over some aspects of the Local Content Law.”

Ambassador Cretz said as the oil and gas sector developed, there would be tremendous interest from American companies to work and build local capacity, which he said had always been part of American companies’ ethics.

Working together with indigenous companies to serve both interests and building capacities, he added, was an integral part of the United States’ commercial diplomacy.

Ghanaian companies such as ZETL and others could explore co-operations as the country looked forward to developing its oil and gas sector, infrastructure and other sectors, there was going to be a tremendous scope for US companies and their Ghanaian counterparts to explore.

“One of my main focuses since I started in Ghana as an ambassador is the promotion of American companies coming to Ghana due to its democratic credentials as a stable country,” he said.

CEO of  ZETL

The Chief Executive of ZETL, Mr Kweku Ennin, said the company was not resting on its current success, “we are pursuing an aggressive upgrading of the skill of our workers and venturing into others.”

Mr Ennin also said the company was strategising to position the company as the leader in the Gulf of Guinea and also put Ghana on the international map, adding, “I have a hope that Ghana’s oil find will be a success and ZETL will be part of the success story.”

The CEO indicated, “we are in the process of partnering other companies and institutions in the country and outside Ghana to sharpen the skills of our engineers produced from the country’s universities.”

The industry, Mr Ennin said, was a knowledge-based one which needed the players to prioritise training to stay ahead to ensure that the best environmental practices were adhered to.

“We are still in business because we don’t compromise on the quality of service to our clients and with that, we will maintain our industrial leadership even though we are open to competition,” he said.