American universities are to offer scholarships to Ghanaians to train in the petrochemical industry, it has been reported.

Masters degrees will be on offer to 100 students from next year as part of the US government's support for Ghana as it prepares to start drilling oil from the country.

The deal was made during a recent visit by president J A Kufour to Washington DC, minister of information and national orientation Stephen Asamoah-Boateng told the Daily Graphic.

He commented to the news provider that the graduate oil training programme is geared towards building the country's manpower base before drilling begins in 2010.

Mr Asamoah-Boateng added that the aim is to see as many people as possible benefit from the petrochemical engineering field and ensure Ghana has the optimum number of personnel to man its oil industry.

Earlier this month oil and exploration firm Tullow announced the discovery of an oil well in Uganda.

The find marks the firm's fifth in the area over the last five months.

Global Education and Training event for Oil and Gas: Refining & Petrochemicals