When it comes into existence, the Ghana Petroleum Regulatory Authority (GPRA) will set out rules for the training and development of domestic workers looking to benefit from the oil and gas industry.

Writing for DI Quarterly, Nana Adjoa Hackman, a barrister and solicitor at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, explains that the regulator will also have responsibility for ensuring that local business and entrepreneurship is enhanced by the growing presence of an international oil and gas industry in the country.

Under the terms of the GPRA bill, which will incorporate the authority into law, international firms will be required to "maximise knowledge transfer to citizens of Ghana and to establish in the country any necessary facility for technical work, including the interpretation of data".

All future oil finds in the country will also have to be followed up with a programme for the training and hiring of local workers to develop the discovery.

Ghana entered the league of oil-bearing nations with Tullow's discovery of 600 million barrels of oil off the country's coast in 2007.

Oil and Gas Directory: Training and Development