The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COMAC) launched its 2026 Safety Week Celebration on a resolute note, convening industry leaders, regulators, oil marketing companies (OMCs), liquefied petroleum gas marketing companies (LPGMCs), and key downstream sector stakeholders around a singular focus: preventing incidents before they occur.
The event, themed “Managing Risk Before It Becomes an Incident,” drew high-level participation from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, and a broad cross-section of the petroleum industry, signalling the weight the sector now places on safety as a strategic rather than compliance-driven priority.
Board Chairman, Gabriel Kumi, opened proceedings by framing the theme as “a clear call to action,” urging stakeholders to deliberately build systems and strengthen safety culture rather than wait for failures to demand a response. He argued that in an industry dealing with volatile products, complacency carries consequences far beyond financial loss, extending to “human lives and community trust.” Proactive risk management, he maintained, is “a moral obligation” for every actor in the downstream space.
COMAC Chief Executive Officer, Riverson Oppong, reinforced this position, stressing that safety must move beyond a compliance exercise to become embedded in “leadership, operations, and long-term planning.”
He pointed to vigilance, discipline, and robust institutional systems as the foundations on which risk can be managed before it escalates into crisis. Oppong also used the occasion to announce a call for nominations of retail outlets eligible for the upcoming 24-Hour Pilot Programme with the NPA, tying operational excellence and regulatory compliance to the programme’s selection criteria.
NPA Chief Executive Godwin Kudzo Tameklo brought sharper regulatory urgency to the conversation, raising concerns about the rising rate of accidents involving tanker drivers. He questioned the practice of entrusting “high-value assets” to drivers whose competence has not been adequately verified, calling for stronger engagement between driver associations, operators, and regulators. His remarks underscored a growing consensus that human risk in logistics is among the sector’s most pressing unresolved challenges.
The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Hon. John Abdulai Jinapor, broadened the conversation beyond the industry itself, calling for safety education to be extended to consumers. He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to supporting petroleum operations that are “safe, efficient, and sustainable,” signalling policy alignment with the sector’s drive toward more structured safety governance.
A panel discussion on building a proactive safety culture, with a focus on managing human and organisational risk before failure occurs, anchored the day’s technical programme. Panellists highlighted early risk identification, leadership commitment, continuous training, and “regulatory collaboration” as non-negotiable elements of a functional safety architecture. The session reinforced a broader argument running through the day’s engagements: that safety systems which depend on reactive intervention are inherently inadequate for an industry of this risk profile.
The engagement sets a clear standard for the days ahead, that safety in Ghana’s downstream petroleum sector is not a reactive posture, but an intentional, continuous, and leadership-driven discipline.
