The Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Mr Gabriel Obiang Lima, has lauded Ghana for her innovative steps taken toward oil and gas development and advancement.

He made his remarks during a panel discussion on the second day of the maiden African Energy Week (AEW) in Cape Town, South Africa while discussing the development prospects of the African petroleum market’s value chain.

Lima re-emphasised the need for other sister countries to emulate the discipline-specific human resource capacity building agenda as had been underscored by Ghana’s Deputy Energy Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam who is leading the country's delegation to the event.

In his comments earlier, Dr Adam had explained that the government of Ghana had set up the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity (AOGC) building programme under the Petroleum Commission to train young men and women in technical, specialised skills such as welding that would be required on the various FPSOs and the technical upstream sector in general.

The Equatorial Guinean minister encouraged all stakeholders gathered at the conference to join Ghana, and other sister countries to a make a strong position for the course of the African energy agenda.