Government imports crude oil for Aboadze plants

John Jinapor, Deputy Power Minister, has mentioned that 400,000 barrels of light crude oil (LCO) have arrived in the country for treatment to power the Aboadze Thermal plants to help ease the nagging power crisis in the country.

Speaking to Joy Fm on Friday in Accra, Mr Jinapor said the consignment, whose total cost he failed to mention, was expected to produce some 450 megawatt of power.

The deputy minister, who also disputed reports that the Ameri Plant has not been working since the disruption in gas supply from N-Gas to Ghana as a result of a force majeure, could not tell how long the 400,000 barrel crude consignment would last.

“We have fuel now: we are going through the treatment,” he said.

However, he said the treatment of the consignment could last for seven days at least for distribution into some three thermal plants within the Aboadze enclave.

According to him, the loss of 200 megawatt power from the national grid was responsible for the ongoing power challenges, adding that there would not be any power outages after the treatment of imported light crude oil in a week’s time.

It is also not known whether the 180 megawatt being imported from Ivory Coast on a daily basis would cease with the arrival of the light crude oil consignment.

Ghana was said to have paid $400,000 daily to Ivory Coast for the 180 megawatt power supplied to Ghana, according to sources at VRA.

Mr Jinapor continued: “The major challenge that has been confronting us for days now is the lack of fuel within the Aboadze thermal enclave.

“The suppliers couldn’t deliver fuel we had established LC for and were expecting on the 23rd due to militant attacks in Nigeria.

“Normally, it takes about one day for the vessel to navigate to Ghana but this time, it had to take about three days because it had to take a detour in Sao Tome,” he stated.

A lot of businesses in the country are struggling as a result of the debilitating power crisis in recent days which has gravely affected their output and profits.

However, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has failed to come out with a load shedding schedule to enable industries to plan their activities.