Alternative routes for gas in the offing

Tullow Oil Company is collaborating with Ghana Gas Company to install by-pass facility to provide an alternative route to give a limited processed gas to the Volta River Authority.

Mr Charles Darku, Managing Director (MD) of the company, who announced this at a media briefing in Accra on Wednesday, said the facility had already been imported and awaiting installation by close of next week.

He explained that the by-pass facility is not taking over from the Ghana Gas Processing Plant but would serve as a back-up facility when the plant breaks down or shut down for routine maintenance.

Mr Darku said the collaboration centres mainly on engineering assistance in terms of quality and installation procedures and did not go into any agreement on financial assistance. He said the collaboration was necessary to find quick solutions to the problem while government continues to find ways to complete the gas plant.

The MD noted that for now the company is re-injecting gas back to the wells and assured the public that their engineers are on the ground and are monitoring their operations very critically. For now, we are managing the situation well and we are comfortable at the rate at which we are re-injecting and we will continue to do that to avoid damaging our reservoirs, he said.

Mr Darku said the company spent 100 million dollars in developing the third gas rejecting well last October to augment the existing two wells. He said though it turned out to take less gas than expected there is enough space in the other two wells to accommodate the capacity being injected currently.

Answering a question on how long the company would continue to re-inject gas, Mr Darku said the decision is in the domain of the engineers who are monitoring the issue on daily basis and would offer an advice, when they reach their ultimate limit.

I can assure you that we do not have eminent problem at hand now. We are currently re-injecting 120 million standard cubic feet of gas daily and we are comfortable with that but we also want to urge government and Ghana Gas Company to facilitate work on the plant to the benefit of all, he added.

Earlier, there was investor forum to take stock of the company’s performance in 2013 and strategies for 2014. The forum was an annual event after the Shareholders Annual General Meeting (AGM) in London.

The 2013 AGM took place last week where the company declared a dividend of 12.0 pence per share. The company had also recorded net debt of 1,909 million dollars as against 989 million dollars in 2012, an increase 93 per cent.