Already, it has completed a preliminary community engagement.

The communities visited included Ada, Denu, Keta, Anloga, Abor and Agbozume.

A statement issued by the company said its officials and those from the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) and PET VOLTA had met with the chiefs and people of several communities over the last two weeks to offer a project description and potential impacts on the community.

Community concerns

According to the statement, members of the communities expressed the fear of being asked to vacate their lands for the project and further inquired about employment opportunities for residents.

They were assured that no one would be required to leave their communities and that employment would be available.

It added that once the environmental impact assessment was completed, seismic acquisition would begin to create a picture of what was below the ground.

Seismic companies

“Over the past two weeks,” the statement said,  “two international seismic companies have made reconnaissance trips all around the block in order to determine how to make the seismic lines with minimum disturbance to the population.

The Keta Delta block is estimated to hold 100 million barrels of oil and will be Ghana's first significant onshore production oil project when it begins drilling in late 2018.

Commenting on the exercise currently underway, the Managing Director of Swiss Africa Oil, Ms Mawuli Aspelin, said she was pleased with how things were unfolding and looked forward to the opportunity to provide employment for the people of the area.