WHAT started as secret load shedding due to the fall in the water level of the Akosombo Dam has now degenerated into a serious national crisis.
It is official that the reported labour unrest in Nigeria, where power is wheeled through the West Africa Gas Pipeline to power the Asogli and Aboadze thermal plants, has exacerbated the already precarious situation in the country.
Unfortunately, the Atuabo gas plant, which should have come in handy to save the situation, though ready, can’t process raw gas to feed the thermal plants.
After going through a series of energy crises, starting from 1983, the government of Ghana took advantage of the oil discovery to build her own gas plant to supply natural gas to feed the numerous thermal plants dotted along the coastline.
The $800 million gas processing plant, which has been sited at Atuabo in the Western Region, according to the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gas Company, Dr. Sipah Yankey, is ready.
The former Health Minister told The Chronicle, via phone yesterday that his administration had done all the necessary tests on the 10,000 strong pipelines which would carry the gas, and found only one, with what he described as a ‘pin hole.’
Under normal circumstances, this hole should have been repaired, but, according to Sipah Yankey, Ghana Gas decided to replace that particular pipe, an exercise which has already been executed.
With the test giving a strong signal that all is well with the plant, which was financed with part of the $3 billion loan from the China Development Bank (CDB), one would have expected that the industrial action in Nigeria should not be a bother to the nation, but the opposite is the case.
As Dr. Sipah Yankey explained to The Chronicle, certain conditions would have to be met first, before official processing of the gas could begin; an exercise which does not lie entirely in the domain of the Ghana Gas Company.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), which buys power from the Volta River Authority (VRA) and other producers, would be holding a news conference this morning to announce to the public the challenges facing the sector.
The company is also expected to announce a new time-table for load shedding, a decision which would affect industries that have already borne the brunt of the energy crisis that has hit the nation, due to fluctuation in gas supply from Nigeria.
But, Dr. Yankey told The Chronicle that his outfit could not intervene and provide the needed succour immediately, until possibly, October 9, 2014.
He explained that though work on the gas processing plant had been completed, certain conditions must be met before they start processing, and subsequently, wheeling the gas to feed the plant at Aboadze, near Sekondi.
Among the conditions he enumerated, are deeds of assignment which have been executed, sales agreement with the Jubilee Partners, which is still ongoing, and an audit to be carried out on the plant by Wood Group, among others.
After all these processes have been completed, Tullow would then tie in Ghana Gas offshore pipes to the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, the drilling vessel, for the supply of the dense gas to begin.
“So when are you going to complete all these paper works for the supply of the gas to start?” The Chronicle asked.
The Ghana Gas CEO responded that if everything moves according to plan, the Jubilee Partners should tie in the pipes to the FPSO on October 9, 2014, which is about three weeks away.
According to him, Tullow has already indicated that the vessel to execute the tie in assignment has been procured, and, therefore, was hopeful that the deadline would be met, and that the boards of both the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Ghana Gas are working around the clock to ensure the early supply of the gas.
Industries and consumers in general, have gone through hell this year, following erratic supply of power by the ECG, a situation, which, in most of the cases, was beyond the control of the VRA, the main power producer.
It all started last year, when a vessel reportedly damaged the undersea pipes transporting the natural gas from Nigeria to Ghana. This truncated gas from reaching the Asogli and Aboadze plants in Tema and Aboadze respectively.
After several months, the pipes were finally repaired, making Ghanaians heave a sigh of relief. But that was short lived, as planned maintenance by the VRA on its Aboadze plant plunged the country into another cycle of load shedding.
When the maintenance schedule was over, many were those who thought all the challenges had been surmounted, only for the water level of the Akosombo Dam reservoir to also start going down.
Since the Akosombo Dam alone contributes over 900 megawatts of power to the country’s energy mix, the VRA/ECG started what many perceived as ‘secret’ load shedding.
Through divine intervention, the water level in the Akosombo Dam reservoir started rising, only for us to be confronted with yet another problem.
This time, an industrial strike in Nigeria, the source of gas supply to Ghana, hasled to the suspension of supply of the commodity to the country. This is what has resulted in the ongoing load shedding.
In all these catastrophic situations, Ghanaians had banked their hopes on Ghana Gas to find a permanent solution to the problem that had also affected industry, resulting in the cutting back on workforce, and the concomitant effect on the economy.
Dr. Yankey, however, argued that with the level Ghana Gas has reached, it does not have its destiny in its own hands, and that they would have to work in close collaboration with all the partners involved in the execution of the project, for the dream of powering thermal plants with our own gas to be achieved.
The Chronicle
