Members of the Western Regional House of Chiefs have warned of possible upsurge in crime and potential conflict if oil companies fail to address youth unemployment in the region. According to the chiefs, the region has witnessed rise in the cost of living, vehicular traffic and population since the exploration of oil in the area. They noted that apart from the fact that the emerging oil and gas industry was putting pressure on the limited social infrastructure in the region, the industry had dislocated many of the youth from homes and jobs, thereby worsening their situation. It said the situation, if not managed well, particularly when employees of the oil and allied companies lived in affluence could be a source of unwarranted social conflict and breeding of criminals. The President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, Awulae Attibrukusu III, gave the warning in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Sekondi after Tullow Oil presented its plan to develop its Deepwater Tano Block to the Western Regional House of Chiefs. He said it was sad that the people in the region and the country would be denied what was due them in the area of jobs on the grounds that the country did not have the expertise. “If four years after the discovery oil we can say that the service sector cannot employ our youth and even employ those returnee Ghanaians from various oil-producing countries across West and North Africa, then we have bad news on our hands,” he said. Awulae Attibrukusu said Nananom (the chiefs) were aware that the industry could not provide opportunities for people without the required competencies and skills needed offshore but the service industry “must be in the hands of the locals with the backing of local content law.” He said aside the employment of foreigners even drivers were employed from other parts of the country, a situation which created uneasiness among the youth in the region. “We must make frantic effort to ensure that the youth are not idle or we will be in serious trouble; it is only when they are idle that they would be thinking evil,” he said. He said it was also a known fact that in every mining area cost of living was high, but the local people were employed in many service areas. Other chiefs also expressed their concern about the fact that corporate social responsibility of the oil companies were centred on the six coastal districts at the expense of the 11 others in the region. They explained that even though other districts were not close to the sea, it was from these districts that the chunk of foodstuff was produced to feed the population in the six coastal districts.