The Ghana National Gas Company is building the capacity of tertiary engineering students through its gas challenge which seeks to bridge the gap between academia and the gas industry.
Chairperson of the Gas Challenge committee, Augustina Osei, believes the petroleum industry will be in capable hands given the hands-on practical exposure of the competing schools.
According to Augustina Osei, students of the participating schools in the Gas Challenge are absorbed by the company under its internship programs to gain insight and employable skills in the industry.
“You quickly realize that even those professors and lecturers who are given oil and gas courses are not really abreast with the indigenous gas and its operations and even the company as Ghana Gas. We felt like we need to break the gap between the academia and the industry. We also believe that there is the need for a capacity building and looking into the future and having young men and women to take over the baton in the very near future while we give them opportunity for job, National service and internship,” she said.
The zone three contest of the gas challenge saw defending champions, University of Mines and Technology compete with contenders from the University of Energy and Natural Resources and the Kumasi Technical University.
The Condensate team of the University of Mines and Technology cemented their campaign to defend the title after escaping defeat from the Methanol and LNG teams of KsTU and UENR respectively.
The two-time champions beat their closest contender, the LNG team by a three point margin, garnering 55 points at the end of the contest.
“I personally, I wasn’t worried because I trust them. They are very good. So I already knew that we had won so I was only waiting for the last question and we did it,” one of the contestants said.
Debutants, Kumasi Technical University, despite their loss pulled an impressive performance as they led the contest till the end of the fourth round.
They are promising a better performance next year.
“I will say we are very sorry for disappointing them but I know that we are going to come out better than this next time,” a contestant from the methanol team noted.
This year’s Gas Challenge is held under the theme “embracing the future together, the indispensable role of gas in facilitating socio-economic growth and development”.
