Ghana gets robust gas supply from Nigeria

The improvement in gas supply experienced in the country may have extended beyond the shores of this country as the neighbouring country Ghana confirmed that it is now getting robust supply through the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) network.

Indeed, Ghana’s Volta River Authority (VRA) confirmed that it is unable to consume all the gas that comes in.

The Business Development Manager of the VRA, Kofi Ellis, recently said: “Currently, we are getting in excess of 140million standard cubic feet per day of gas from Nigeria. That has been quite encouraging,”

Ghana had lamented that the WAGP, which was conceived to supply natural gas from Nigeria to Togo, Benin and Ghana, among other countries in the region, has not been meeting up with the needs of the nation’s electricity firm.

Until recently, volumes supplied to Ghana dropped to an all- time low of between 30million and 50million standard cubic feet per day, making it difficult for the solely gas-reliant Sunon Asogli power plant (200 megawatts) to stay on.

The Ghana Gas Company was however suspecting that the coming on stream of its own gas must have had something to do with the recent increase in supplies from Nigeria.
The Chief Executive Officer Ghana, Dr Sipa Yankey, believed that the establishment of the Ghana gas company led to the sudden increase in supply from Nigeria, bearing in mind the emerging competition.

“For some reason supply from Nigeria has suddenly increased,” he said.

Chief Executive Officer of the WAGP, Walter Perez, however linked the supply increase to the fact that Nigerian gas sector has simply found some peace, with no pipeline vandalism in the last few months.

“The other component, I believe, is that some of the policies of the former government in Nigeria had been to invest in pipeline infrastructure and also in gas production, and we are seeing that those plans are coming through; they are actually being completed.” Walter said.