President John Mahama has performed a ground breaking ceremony for the start of a seven billion dollar offshore Cape Three Points integrated oil and gas project at Sanzuley in the Ellembelle District of the Western region.

The project being undertaken by Italy's largest Oil company ENI in collaboration with Vitol Energy, will see the development of the Sankofa and Gye Nyame fields to provide gas to feed the country's thermal power plants for the next twenty years.

The first gas from the integrated project is expected in 2018. President Mahama emphasised the need for the youth in project areas to acquire skills to enable them to gain meaningful jobs. The ground breaking ceremony represents another land mark achievement towards attaining energy security for the country.

Last year, President Mahama, signed the agreement with ENI and Vitol Energy at a ceremony at the Peduase lodge near Aburi. This is probably the biggest single largest foreign direct investment in West Africa and indeed Ghana since independence.

Situating the project in the Western region goes to cement President Mahama's vision of making the region an industrial and growth pole to give citizens the needed quality of life. The oil production from the offshore cape three points is estimated at eighty thousand barrels per day and will start in 2017.

The Gas project will also produce non associated gas of a hundred and eighty cubic feet a day for a twenty year period and has the potential to generate about a thousand megawatts of electricity per day. First gas from the project is scheduled to flow in the first quarter of 2018.

The technocrats say, the gas receiving facilities will be located in Sanzuley and tied to the Ghana Gas pipeline in order to deliver gas to the Aboadze and Tema power enclaves.

The President of the Eastern Nzema Traditional area, Awulae Amihere kpanyinli, described the investment as proud moments for citizens of Nzemaland. The Managing Director of ENI Ghana, Fabio Cavanna, gave the assurance that the company will operate here bearing in mind safety and environmental good practices.

He announced that about two thousand jobs will be created as work commences. President Mahama, is optimistic that the project will address a major constraint on the country's economy, which is energy. With the potential of the project to create jobs, President Mahama, trumpeted the skills acquisition idea, as more projects are rolled out.

The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation is represented on the project as a non-operating joint venture partner. Parliament last year approved all commercial and security agreements relating to the project. The World Bank has also issued a partial risk guarantee for the project.