It was a smiling, sure-footed, and confident Koo that went to work the following morning. He smiled and shared jokes with almost everyone he met on the premises. Going through his IN tray, and debating with himself on what to tackle first, he received a mail on his computer informing him of a vessel docking at the Port of Takoradi in ten days, bearing a Christmas Tree. He became excited immediately, knowing that it was going to be a challenging and rewarding experience for him and his team if all goes well.

In the midst of the excitement generated by the news of the Christmas Tree amongst the working force, both the Senior and Junior staff members,  Prospee, a lad doing his National Service at Marine Energy sought the assistance of Google to learn about what this Christmas Tree was and find out if it was any different from the Christmas tree he was familiar with and found out that in petroleum and natural gas extraction, a Christmas Tree is an assembly of valves casing spools and fittings used to regulate the flow of pipes in an oil and gas well. It was so named for its resemblance to the series of starting lights at a drag racing strip that goes by that name.

The Christmas Tree thus was an expensive and delicate piece of equipment that required special handling with special equipment.  So in consultation with Carlos, his boss, he put in a call to the Director of 3 Brothers Company,  his former place of work.

“Good morning boss. This is Kweku Hima speaking. “

“Eeei, Koo, the man who never lost in town, Hahaha. “

“Hahaha, boss, now I’ve gotten lost in town o, Hahaha “

“Look at you. How is Marine Energy?”

“We’re fine, boss. The reason why I called is that our Christmas Tree is docking soon and we need one of your low beds to cart it from quayside to our warehouse.”

“Ohh, we have 3 now. Let your people send us the mail and we’ll respond appropriately.”

“Ok, boss. Until then….”

“Ok, but you might have to come here yourself to inspect and select one of the low beds for the operation since you are conversant with how it should be done.”

“Ok, I will, no problem.”

“See you later then,  and be careful of the girl o, hehehe.”

Yessa Massa.”

After days of frantic efforts, busy days and late nights, Kweku Hima and his team met the 3 Brothers crew at the Harbour to convey the equipment to the warehouse. Though an Expert had been flown at a huge cost to see to the handling of the operation, Kweku Hima handled things so well that the Expatriate felt that his presence wasn’t needed and that he had wasted a journey and had nothing but praises for the Ghanaian especially when the driver of the low bed was finding it difficult in negotiating a bend and the equipment was in danger of toppling over and Koo took over the steering and expertly drove it to the warehouse to the applause of all around.

***

Two months later, the investigations on the Spill kit saga established that it was the fault of the Company that did the import on behalf of Marine Energy and that Kweku Hima had followed the right procedure to the letter and had nothing to do with the mix-up. The report recommended the termination of the Supplier’s contract. And as for the hard-working and charismatic Kweku Hima, he was promoted to the post of Operations  Manager for his flawless handling of the Christmas  Tree operation among other equally successful operations.

A cocktail party was held in his honour at the plush Raybow Hotel at lunchtime.

It was also an opportunity for Marine Energy to reintroduce itself to the Oil and Gas community, so almost all the big companies were invited but Kweku Hima was the Star of the Day.

At one point,  the Area Manager, his boss, handed him an envelope containing fifty crisp two hundred notes totalling ten thousand Ghana cedis.

“Thank you, boss but you shouldn’t have,” he said.

“Accept it.. you deserve it and more.”

“I really appreciate this, Sir.”

After a while, he placed a call to Adiza.

“Adiza, can you come to the Raybow Hotel immediately?”

“No p…coming,” she said. “Which room?”

“Just call me as soon as you get to the reception,” he said and ended the call.