My time with Tullow was short, but I made some key inputs – Kweku Awotwi

Outgoing Managing Director of Tullow Ghana and Executive Vice President of Tullow Oil plc, Kweku Awotwi, says although his time with the oil giant was relatively short compared to his previous roles in the mining and energy sectors, he has made some vital contribution to the organization.

Mr. Awotwi, who’s due to retire in September this year, has opted to exit by June 30th, to pave way for a new Managing Director, Wissam Al Monthiry.

Tullow in announcing his impending exit, acknowledged his contribution to the organization.

Highlighting some of his contributions to Citi Business News, Mr. Awotwi, who was appointed in February 2018, said he joined the company at a time when the industry was going through turbulent times.

“The private sector is free to do what it wants in terms of retirement, but Tullow as a company has adopted new public sector standard where 60 is the retirement age and we actually apply it quite religiously. So, I was due to hit my retirement in September. Basically, the reason why I took early retirement was that we have a new CEO coming on July 1, and I didn’t feel that I would be around for two or three months and then leave. So, I thought let me leave before he comes, so that he comes with a clean slate and a clean team, and that’s really the reason” he explained.

“I think I came in at the time when the industry was quite turbulent, and I was not there for a long time. I was at VRA for almost 5 years, Ashanti Goldfields too I was there for 6 years. Clearly, you can make more of an impact the longer you stay, but in the time that I have been there, I think that I made some good contribution.
The current production that you see in 2020 is really a result of work and effort and initiatives and appointments we made in 2019. They are paying off. They are very important for us currently to meet our production guidelines,” he stated.

“We made a number of other technical projects. We are almost finishing what we call the pipe repair remediation project. We produced 50 million barrels a TEN, and we also laid the foundation for a legislation that allows us to access some areas in our production area that we didn’t have right to. And a lot of these, I had some significant input into. So in my time I feel I made my contribution and I am happy to move out,” he added.