Natural gas flows from Nigeria
This follows the completion of repair works on the pipeline and a successful test-run on the facility.
Already, 60 million standard cubic feet of gas, about 50 per cent of the total capacity, has been received.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at the Aboadze Thermal Plant yesterday, the Director of Thermal Energy Generation at the Volta River Authority (VRA), Ing Richard Badger, said the development was welcome news, adding that the VRA was carrying out checks to ensure a successful switch over.
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“What we are doing currently is checking for leakages and other things, which are normal processes we have to go through to ensure that everything is in order,” he said.
He said aside from the Aboadze facility, the Asogli plant was also carrying out similar checks on its facility.
Ing. Badger said after all checks had been done, Asogli, which generates about 15 per cent of the country’s current energy net output, would first be supplied with the gas.
When contacted, the Head of Communications at the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Edward Bawah, said the country had the target of increasing the installed generation capacity of about 2,500MW to 5,000MW by early 2016.
He said the arrival of the gas was very timely and vindicated President Mahama’s position that the government attached great importance to finding a solution to the country’s energy crisis.
The Chief Executive Officer of the VRA, Mr Kweku Awortwi, disclosed at a news conference in Accra on July 4, 2013 that gas was expected to flow from Nigeria through the West Africa Gas Pipeline this week.
Answering questions from journalists, Mr Awortwi said with the completion of repair works, engineers had started opening the valves to increase the pressure to facilitate the uninterrupted flow of gas.
The West Africa Gas Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline to supply gas from Nigeria's Escravos region of the Niger Delta area to Benin, Togo and Ghana. It is the first regional natural gas transmission system in sub-Saharan Africa.
On August 27, 2012, the pipeline was destroyed when pirates who had tried to board an oil tanker in an attempt to escape from pursuing Togolese naval personnel severely damaged the pipeline.
For over two months, the supply of gas to Ghana, Togo and Benin ceased, causing major power supply problems in the affected countries.
Following inadequate power supply from the VRA, the Electricity Company of Ghana announced a load-shedding exercise.
By Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu/Ghana
