A selection of students from the University of Ghana have travelled to Pittsburgh to undertake an oil training programme as part of an exchange agreement with the University of Duquesne.

The Ghana News Agency reports that 22 Ghanaian students are taking part in the training programme, which will focus on tackling environmental and social challenges arising from the extraction of oil and gas resources.

Dr George Wiafe, lecturer at the oceanography department of the University of Ghana and co-ordinator of the programme, said that the training programme would facilitate the transfer of best-practice standards ahead of Ghana's full-scale development of its oil and gas reserves.

Tullow, a major stakeholder in Ghana's offshore oil projects, expects to achieve first oil in the final quarter of the year.

Students on the course will examine differences between the oil and gas industries in Ghana and the US to promote successful social, economic and environmental management of energy assets.

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