Ghana Gas sets April 1 for full operations

The Ghana Gas Company (GGC) says it is ready to begin full-scale operations this year on by April 1st, which will see the company scale-up the production of raw gas to 120million standard cubic feet a day for power generation.

Currently, Ghana Gas produces below 80million standard cubic feet a day, and it’s hoping to push up supply in the next couple of weeks barring any technical lapses.

The CEO of Ghana Gas Company, Dr. George Sipa Yankey, explained that the delay in commencing full operation results from the limited capacity of some power generation plants to take up the entire volume of gas that will be produced by the company.

"If Volta River Authority (VRA) plants are working and are taking about 55million standard cubic feet of gas per day, we need TICO plants: unit 1 and 2, to come on stream to take about 110million standard cubic feet of gas that will be produced every day. If they can take it, we shall do 110million standard cubic feet today. So we are ready and prepared to start commercial operations, only we are waiting on the generating facilities to be ready to receive the gas," he said.

The Ghana Gas Company, which manages the Atuabo gas infrastructure, has the capacity to release about 150million standard cubic feet of gas a day, but it has been forced to only release 74million standard cubic feet a day.

Recently, issues were raised about the adequacy of gas volume supplied from the Jubilee Oil and Gas Fields to the country’s gas processing plants and onward supply to power thermal plants in Aboadze for electricity generation.

The VRA estimates that a turbine consumes about 5,000 barrels of crude in a day, which requires about US$55million every three weeks to purchase crude for powering thermal plants in the country.

Financing the crude oil purchases has however been very challenging for the Authority, given that its tariff covers just 60% of operational cost.

Dr. Yankey maintained that the country will cut by half the cost of procuring crude to power the country’s thermal generation plants.

He also explained that the gas coming on-stream will help the country reduce imports of LPG and subsequently shore-up the country's foreign reserves.

According to Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, the production will be based on the capacity of thermal plants in the country to absorb the gas produced.

Appearing before Parliament’s Government Assurances Committee on Thursday, Mr. Buah announced: “We intend to start full commercial operation at the end of this month”.

He said the plant is currently producing 74million metric standard cubic feet of gas, but will increase capacity to 150million cubic feet at the end of March.

He assured that producing gas in commercial quantities will halve the cost of power production in Ghana. Ghana Gas is currently providing gas to the Volta River Authority (VRA) to power the Aboadze Thermal Plant.

The CEO of Ghana Gas Company, who accompanied the minister, said so far about US$1billion has been spent on the project.

He explained that the Ghana government contributed 15 percent of the cost, with the rest coming from a Chinese Development Bank loan.

The 150million metric standard cubic feet per day capacity GPP is located at Atuabo in the Ellembele district of Ghana’s Western Region.