BOST Rolls Out US$600m Plan To Create Thousands Of Jobs

Bost now has additional mandate as a strategic transmitter of natural gas across the country and beyond

Ghana's Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Ltd (BOST) is completing feasibility studies to construct a modern gas transmission system to serve Ghana and its neighbouring countries in support of its additional mandate to become the national transporter of natural gas.

To start with, the company says it will construct a gas terminal at Pumpuni, near Takoradi in the Western Region, and also develop the first phase of what it calls the Western Corridor Transmission System, all estimated at US$600 million, to start this year and end in 2013.

The government will solely fund the project through bilateral arrangements.

The multi-million dollar project is expected to create thousands of jobs for Ghanaians and give meaning to the local content and local participation in the petroleum industry policy which aims at indigenising the oil and gas industry.

Right from the blast, the monumental project will generate jobs for artisans, metal fabricators, welders, carpenters, caterers, drivers, engineers, among others, but the leadership of BOST told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that residents of the project area should step ahead and acquire some skills in anticipation of employment opportunities.

Some of the major industries in the Western and Central regions that can breathe a sigh of relief are the Abosso Glass Factory, the integrated alumina processing industry of which Sekondi will now be the hub, the Bokazo and Saltpond ceramic factories and the Nsuta manganese processing project.

The gas processing plant is expected to produce dry gas for power generation, minerals processing and petrochemicals; natural gas liquids, as well as deliver LPG in volumes of about five times what is currently produced by the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).

BOST, which already owns and operates Ghana’s petroleum pipelines and storage facilities, now also has the mandate to develop the Natural Gas Transmission System and the bulk purchase of natural gas from suppliers (in Nigeria and elsewhere) and subsequent supply to distribution franchise operators who will supply gas to various end-users or customers.

Ghana has a zero-gas flaring policy, which has compelled the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to initiate the development of the Jubilee gas processing plant towards the promotion of gas-based industrialisation.

BOST has subsequently been given an expanded mandate to be the sole bulk purchaser of natural gas from the jubilee fields for transmission anywhere.

According to BOST, its initial infrastructure would focus on transporting natural gas to some strategic projects to boost Ghana’s industrialisation drive. Some of the projects date back to the post-independence era but had to be abandoned for various reasons.

The Managing Director of BOST, Dr Yaw Akoto, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an interview that BOST had moved swiftly with plans to build transmission infrastructure in the Western and Eastern corridors of Ghana due to its expanded mandate to facilitate the movement of natural gas and LPG across the country.

The appointment of BOST as the developer and owner of the interconnected natural gas transmission system received Cabinet approval in September 2007, in accordance with the Energy Commission Act, Act 541.

Dr Akoto said pursuant to its enlarged mandate, BOST had created a strategic subsidiary – the Natural Gas Transmission Utility (NGTU) – to focus on this area, adding that the company had also acquired more than 300 acres of land at Pumpuni Reef to build the natural gas hub and dispatch centre.

“Natural gas from the GNPC processing facility and other supply points will be stored for further delivery through the transmission system to various locations. There will be various supply and demand balancing points across the country,” the BOST managing director said.

Since this mandate, Dr Akoto said, the company has long positioned itself to take advantage of the gas from the West African Gas Pipeline to initially address the secondary gas market in Tema.

Throwing light on the project, the managing director said the Western Corridor Gas Transmission System would have a 123-km, 20-inch pipeline laid to transport gas from jubilee fields gas processing plants (GPPs) to terminate at the BOST Terminal at Pumpuni Reef, from where BOST transmission networks will originate.

From the BOST Terminal, the pipeline would be extended to Aboadze (where the Volta River Authority has a thermal power plant), which would also provide the interconnection with the West African Gas Pipeline to ensure a reverse flow through WAGP to Tema.

Dr Akoto said BOST would also have gas transported from the BOST Terminal to connect the Sekondi Export Processing Zone to fire a planned 200 MW natural gas co-generation power plant to serve a proposed alumina refinery and other plants in the export processing zone.

Also, there would be a 350-km gas pipeline to initially terminate in Kumasi to feed a planned natural gas fired thermal power plant.

“This pipeline will also pass through other strategic mineral processing project areas in the Western Region, namely, an alumina refinery in the export processing zone, the Nsuta manganese processing project; the Oppong Manso Iron project to produce ferro-alloy products, as well as the Abosso Glass factory,” he stated.