The Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) has spent about 268 million cedis in executing more than 398 projects across the country as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility in the past 10 years. It has also awarded scholarships and mentored more than 100 students from its catchment area. The projects are under education, health, water and sanitation, sports and community development. Mr Stephen Donkor, the Senior Manager for Community Relation and Corporate Social Responsibility, said this at a training programme in Takoradi to update the media on their operations, the oil and gas industry value, and its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects in the past 10 years. The workshop, attended by more than 30 journalists, was on the theme: 'Training the Media for Effective Oil and Gas Industry Reporting'. Mr Donkor said the company, from its inception in 2014, had undertaken various CSR activities across the country, focusing on bringing some sustainable development goals into reality. The activities were in two folds where need assessments were done in some cases for communities directly affected by the company's operations, while others were done through request by traditional authorities, district assemblies, political and opinion leaders. He said about 78 of the CSR projects were executed in communities directly affected by their operations in the Ellembelle and Nzema East areas. On education, he said 139 school projects had been completed and handed over to the beneficiaries, while 86 were at various stages of completion. Twenty-four health facilities had been completed across the country, while three were still under construction, he said, adding that hundreds of people had been registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme, especially in the company's catchment areas. Mr Donkor said 38 sports facilities had been constructed and handed over to beneficiary communities, with 21 others still under construction across the country. On water and sanitation, the Senior Manager said 172 borehol es had been drilled with some mechanised. Under community development, he said 25 projects had been executed and that 60 women in the Ellembelle and Nzema areas had been trained to establish small and medium scale enterprises and given start-up kits to help address unemployment in the two areas. He said 40 men were currently being trained in corrosion controls to take jobs in the construction of a second gas processing plant. Mr Albert Mensah-Tandoh, a Member of the Operations Team of GNGC, who took participants through the history and operations of the Plant, said: 'Taking the mantle in 2017 to manage the operations of Ghana's Premier gas processing plant has not only brought success to the gas circuit but has also been a positive journey so far'. He said setting the stage for positive outcomes, the company boldly indigenised the management and operations of gas processing by replacing SIN OPEC engineers with Ghanaians. The seemingly different decision of indigenisation resulted in saving of more than 1 0 million dollars for the country, which further created room to employ more Ghanaian engineers to manage and operate the gas facility at Atuabo. Mr Mensah-Tandoh said the Ghanaian engineers had done tremendously well so far without any major glitches. 'They have successfully managed major plant shutdowns, tie-ins, expansion works and facility maintenance, this has influenced the company's position as the best petroleum company in the energy sector for three consecutive years,' he added. He said the company had commenced work for the construction of the Gas Processing Plant Train Two, the LPG bottling plant at Axim and the establishment of a gas school at the gas house. 'The gas school is a cutting-edge programme that will train young people to become gas industry experts'. He pointed out that the GNGC fraternity had been the backbone to the stability of power generation in the country, with constant supply of lean gas to relevant agencies and adhering to standardised maintenance culture. The Ghana Nati onal Gas Company was established in 2014 to be a trusted and reliable gas servicer company and contribute to Ghana's gas economic development. It was to provide and operate an infrastructure required for gathering, processing and delivering gas resources in a safe, cost effective, responsible and reliable manner to customers. Source: Ghana News Agency