Cautious optimism for Ghana gas infrastructure completion

Ensuring an adequate and secure supply of natural gas is fundamental to improving the availability and cost of power in Ghana, according to the World Bank Ghana’s flagship energy sector report.

A delay in the start-up of gas supply costs Ghana US$1million per day of additional oil purchases, which the report noted is a powerful incentive for the government to move new gas developments forward as fast as possible.

“Government policies and decisions have delayed investments in gas supply and power generation, which are at the root of the current power shortages”, said the report.

The three-year delay in commercializing Jubilee gas is reported to cost Ghana a billion dollars in extra crude oil used for power generation.

Funding constraints have caused the delay in completing the gas infrastructure project at Atuabo in the Western Region.

Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Gas Company, Dr. George Sipa Yankey, is confident of meeting the end of year target for supplying gas to mitigate the loss of output from Sunon Asogli thermal power station.

However, optimism is on the decline as the timelines have been missed several times.

A member of the Public Interest Accountability Committee (PIAC), Ishmael Edjekumhene, says there are other factors beyond the control of the company which should guide them in the management of public expectations.

 

“Where they are having the project is where the rainfall pattern is very heavy [and] if it starts raining they can’t do anything. Those are things they are beyond them and we’ve kept telling them to manage expectations…. We need the gas so we all pray that it comes early but I’m not too sure end of year they would have completed the project”, he explained.

The 700 million dollar gas facility will process about 150 million standard cubic feet of gas a day from the Jubilee Field for power generation.

Mr. Edjekumhene says the current gas processing capacity is not too significant for expectations to be hyped, at least not until production is increased to 300 cubic feet under the second phase in 2016/2017.

According to the World Bank report, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) could also play a role in ensuring the security of gas supply, but the economic justification for an LNG import project is complex.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh