Step by step

Dai Jones, President and General Manager of Tullow Oil Ghana, and Stuart Wheaton, Tullow's development manager, are aware of the big expectations, but see the need to manage this at a very early stage, so that people do not become disillusioned.

"Oh yes, there's huge excitement – I think some people think we're going to be the next Saudi Arabia the day after first oil arrives! But it's very important we try to manage the expectations against reality," said Dai on the Tullow website. He added that Jubilee is only one oilfield and they are still in the process of creating an oil industry. Tullow Oil Plc is the major shareholder in the Jubilee oilfield with a 34.7 percent stake.

The other stakeholders in Jubilee are Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (23.49 percent), Kosmos Energy (23.49 percent), GNPC (13.75 percent), Sabre Oil and Gas (2.81 percent), E.O. Group (1.75 percent). These companies are set to change the fortunes of Ghana, primarily known for its Cocoa exports.

The IMF's Mission Chief in Ghana, Peter Allum, said that oil will be the "big story for Ghana this year," and therefore, a major boost to the growth of the economy. However, he was apprehensive that the expectations for increased job opportunities may be, for now, a little unrealistic.

"Now [oil] won't create many jobs in and of itself. It's a very capital-intensive industry and the oil is based offshore, so a lot of those jobs are going to be expatriate jobs. But it will generate a substantial boost in revenues for the government - we estimate in the range of 6 to 7 percent of GDP," Allum told IMF's Survey Online in November last year. "If that money is used wisely, it could lead to a substantial improvement in Ghana's infrastructure and its competitiveness, and that could lead to further growth and job creation," he said.

The employment policy in Tullow Oil is to have at least nine Ghanaians out of every 10 employees working in the oilfield by 2012.

"Two years ago we had approximately 20 people and now here in Accra we are close to 300 people, in Takoradi we are close to 150 people. There is a very good, talented pool of people in Ghana, in engineering, finance, accounting and construction and with very little training, these people can effectively be employed here," he said on tullowoil.com.

On the other hand, Allum described Ghana as "very fortunate" given that its two main exports of gold and cocoa had allowed it to weather the global recession that rocked the world in 2010.