By Stephanie Hanson — Special to GlobalPost
Fishing is an important industry in Ghana and environmentalists worry that the deepwater oil drilling will harm the fishing waters. Here is a bustling fishing port in Sekondi, Ghana. (Stephanie Hanson/GlobalPost) 
TAKORADI, Ghana — A digital sign in the lobby of Tullow Oil’s office here reads 61 days — a countdown to the country's first first oil.
In November, Ghana will begin producing from its estimated 1.6 billion barrels of oil reserves.
As oil workers prepare pipes for deepwater installation at the port of Takoradi, and the Ghanaian government passes legislation regulating the oil, Ghanaians are wondering whether the oil will benefit them.
To manage its oil industry responsibly, the Ghanaian government needs to slow down and make sure it has a strong regulatory framework in place. As Ghana comes close to becoming one of Africa's oil producers with the offshore Jubilee Field, what progress has been made to see that the petroleum is a boost to Ghanaians and not a curse? What steps are being taken to protect Ghana's environment?
Many of Ghana’s coastal communities are dependent on fishing. Regardless of any revenue-sharing agreement that is developed by the government, these communities need the ocean to remain clean and safe for their livelihoods.
With the recent Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the world is all too aware of the dangers of deepwater oil extraction. Ghana has made progress on legislation to regulate the petroleum industry and manage oil revenues (though this legislation has not yet been passed by parliament). However, environmental regulation still lags behind, and Ghana's Environmental Protection Agency lacks the technical expertise to adequately monitor the oil and gas sector…
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