The Petroleum Technology Institute Ghana (PTIG) will help to address a severe local shortfall in skilled oil and gas workers, one of the centre's key proponents has claimed.

Speaking to stakeholders, Ross Agazuma, vice-president of global maritime for west Africa, said that the PTIG would build bridges between industry, education systems and skills providers, allowing for the development of the wealth of under-qualified workers in Africa.

Offering 15-month or four-semester post-graduate diplomas and MScs in fields such as Petroleum, Well, Production, and Subsea Engineering, as well as Pipeline and Riser Engineering, the PTIG training and development centre is set to begin to take its first students in 2010.

According to reports from This Day, minister of energy for Ghana Felix Kwasi Owusu-Adjapong, told delegates: "[PTIG will] serve as a natural source of manpower, adaptive research, technology development and resource centre in addressing the challenges in the petroleum sector in Ghana and the West African sub-region."

Elsewhere, the Chronical has reported that professor John Evans Fiifi Attah Mills, lead opposition member of the National Democratic Congress, has insisted that revenues from the oil industry must be spent judiciously to ensure the training and development of its workforce.