It has therefore, engaged staff of its Petroleum Department and representatives of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation and some civil society activists in a two-day workshop to deliberate on the framework of the communication strategy.

Under the strategy, staff of the Department would also be trained to educate and inform target audience made up of communities, CSOs, the media and the public on proper environmental management of the sector.

Mr Kojo Agbenor-Efunam, Chief Programme Officer and Head of the Petroleum Department, EPA, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview on the side-line of the workshop held in partnership with the Norwegian Environment Agency.

He said the workshop was to help identify key elements of a communication strategy for the EPA and an action plan, where priorities of measures for diversified target groups were pinned down and mapped out within a time-frame to support the work and activities of its oil and gas department.

Mr Agbenor-Efunam said under an "Oil for Development" collaboration with the Norwegian Environment Agency,the EPA decided to train its staff at the Petroleum Department to enable it to develop the oil and gas communication strategy for better citizen engagement.

He said the Norwegian collaborations that dated back 2010, also involved the Ministries of Environment and Energy under a three pillar programme that revolved around training and capacity building of the personnel in the needed fields.

Mr Larry Kotoe, Senior Programme Officer, Petroleum Department, EPA, said an earlier engagement with the stakeholders in the Western Region on needs analysis for the oil the gas sector identified issues like Oil Spills, the Petroleum Value Chain, Environmental Impact Assessment process, and Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Mitigation interventions programmes as those that concerned the people. 

Others were Emissions and discharges, Fisheries and Industry conflict, law and Guidelines, sea weeds, Whale beaching/stranding, Petroleum Safety and Waste Management.

Mr Kotoe said the EPA was therefore, poised to identify the key stakeholders for the purposes of assuring and increasing their awareness and understanding of the sector accordingly.

We need to develop an environmental scan mechanism to continuously monitor the stakeholders' opinions, views and attitudes and harness feedback for improved communication, he said.