Scheduled maintenance would not affect energy supply – Felix Kwakye Ofosu

Special Aide to President John Mahama, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has disclosed that the officials in the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government assured the new president of a well-handled energy situation during the transition period.

He said during briefings, Mahama had been told that the scheduled maintenance of the West African Gas Pipeline was not going to impede energy supply to the country, yet, that had turned out not to be the case.

“It needs to be stressed that the maintenance exercise should have been carried in October last year. The NPP government requested that it be shifted to January. 20th in order that they will have sufficient time to procure the alternative fuels to power the thermal plants within the period where gas will be unavailable.

“In about two national security briefings the then president-elect held with the present government, he asked about the status of the procurement of oil and he was given firm assurance by the then government that they had put mechanisms in place and that there would not be the difficulty we are talking about today.

“But it does appear that that promise was not kept,” he said in an interview with GH One TV’s Abdul Hanan.

He explained that the looming energy challenges had arisen in part as a result of a postponed maintenance operation that should have been carried out last year.

Kwakye Ofosu, who also spoke briefly on the establishment of a 12-member committee to avert the problem, said the team had been charged to propose a plan on the way ahead by the close of the day.

“They have until the close of day today to put before government the roadmap on what exactly needs to be done and how it can be done,” he indicated.

“So you can rest assured that government will do what needs to be done.”

The West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) had announced a cleaning and inspection exercise on a 56-kilometre onshore pipeline section between Itoki and Badagry in Nigeria.

The maintenance will disrupt gas supply to several power plants in Tema, which typically consume about 180 mmscfd of gas. This disruption is expected to create a significant shortfall in supply.

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