Ghanaian Sets Up Modern Oil And Gas Facility

Some workers of Zeal Environment taking delivery of some plastic waste at the gantry. INSET: The liquid waste treatment plant.

A multi-million dollar integrated waste management facility at Nyankrom in the Shama District of the Western Region has been completed to handle waste from the country's offshore oil fields.

A Ghanaian company, Zeal Environmental Technologies, which manages hazardous and non-hazardous wastes from all marine vessels, owns the facility, which will be placed at the disposal of oil production and drilling vessels on the Jubilee field.

The completion of the facility gives meaning to the domestic content policy of the oil industry which seeks to encourage indigenous Ghanaians to participate in the oil and gas industry.

The Chief Executive Officer of Zeal Environmental Technologies, Mr Kweku Ennin, said in spite of the massive rewards and benefits that the oil and gas resource holds, its impact on the ecosystem, human health and consequently on sustainable development should not be overlooked but handled in a responsible manner.

He said Zeal consequently stepped in to provide appropriate and sound environmental technology to help deal with the substantial amount of waste expected to be generated within the industry.

The completion of the facility largely answers the question of how waste, especially hazardous waste, generated from the oilfield would be managed to avoid creating problems for communities and the country.

Managing the waste from the Jubilee field has been one of the difficult puzzles confronting the country's nascent oil and gas production as wrongly disposed waste could have adverse socio-economic, cultural, atmospheric, aquatic, terrestrial and biospheric impacts.

Mr Ennin explained that waste generated by oil and gas companies were both hazardous while food waste from the gallery, oily base mud, chemical metal/plastic drums and containers; medical/clinical waste used batteries with high acidity could easily be disposed off inappropriately and render the immediate surrounding communities vulnerable to them.

Mindful of international laws against wanton dumping of waste, Mr Ennn said the oil and gas companies were very particular about waste disposal and work closely with Zeal and other companies to help them with waste disposal.

The integrated waste management facility has an oily waste section, waste transfer station, which include crushing and piercing areas, as well as designated places for receiving chemicals for neutralisations and incineration.

The Ghanaian waste management company has carried out extensive education in the surrounding communities on the dangers of certain items such as drums, containers that might look useful to them in communities but rather very harmful.

Mr Ennin also told the Daily Graphic that Zeal Environmental Technologies also undertook the cleaning of tanks for supply vessels, with new equipment which takes care of both liquid and dry bulk tanks.

“This ensures that many oily base mud and sludge are received, stabilised, and treated to ensure that they do not enter the community,” the chief executive said, adding that “this part of the facility has a 300,000 litres reception pond, a loading and offloading gantry with containment bound curbs and ramps”.

The waste facility also has a section for the crushing, shredding and piecing of empty plastic/metal chemical drums which until now had a high demand in the market for domestic use but very harmful to the health of the people, Mr Ennin explained.

“This facility will therefore prevent the communities from using the tanks for water storage to avoid the harmful effects of the chemical contents,” the Zeal Environment promoter stated.

He expressed regret that waste management services in Ghana had for many years concentrated on limited aspects of the collection, transportation and disposal of essentially domestic waste.

Mr Ennin said efforts towards achieving the goals of possible reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery of waste in environmentally sound manner as practised in advanced countries had been minimal.

He said as a Ghanaian company, the interest of the country was important to them and everything would be done to ensure safe environment saying, “that is our prime social responsibility to the country”.

In addition, Zeal's employees include 60 local workers out of which 40 were within the catchment area of the facility. They were engaged at the construction phase and trained.

Other benefits from the facility are Zeal's support for schools within the catchment area such as the Nyankrom Junior High School.

Mr Ennin said the company was also sponsoring an environmental science graduate to pursue a master's degree in environmental law.

“There is no doubt that our facility would complement the government's social and economic programmes by mitigating the effect of unemployment and its associated social vices such as armed robbery, prostitution among the youth, within the catchment area of the location of our  facility,” he said.