More Gas For Electricity Generation Coming Soon

As part of government efforts to ensure that the electricity generation and supply is consistent has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with counterpart Oil producing country Equatorial Guinea for the supply of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)

The agreement is part of a broader project his country is embarking on to ensure African countries have sufficient energy.

This was revealed by the Equatorial Guinea Minister of Mines, Industry and Energy, Obiang Lima has said at the 8th Ghana Oil and Gas Summit in Accra last week.

“I have to say and I want to thank my fellow Energy minister from Ghana that yesterday we signed an initiative it’s called Energy to Africa and we are starting with Ghana. We have signed a MOU to look at the possibility for us to send LNG because it is very sad that we can negotiate contract with Chile, Korea, Singapore but we cannot send a single drop to Africa” he revealed

Ghana is in times of dire need for LNG to power idle thermal plant for electricity generation.

Fortnight ago, operators of the Sunon Asogli Power Plant decried that the plant is running at half capacity due to insufficient gas supply.

The plant which relies on LNG from the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAGPCo) has for the past years not operated to its installed capacity due to inconsistencies in the volumes of gas supplied to it.

The company which completed its phase two power plant in January this year is expected to add about 360 megawatt power to its supply.

But, speaking to journalist at the sidelines of the Energy Summit in Accra, the Chairman of the Sunon Asogli Power Plant, Li Xiaohai alias Kweku Lee stated that the company is considering importing fuel since it is losing millions of dollars.

“Actually we don’t have sufficient gas, as we are speaking we have only around 30mmscf per day from WAPGCo which is only sufficient for us to run one of the phase two machines,” he said.

“Due to this we converted another machine at the phase two plant to LSU. So we are lucky to get some LSU to run that machine. The whole phase one which is additional 200 megawatts is idle. So we are trying to solve it with some LNG supply,” he said.

Kweku Lee stated that the company has the capacity to produce about 560MW for the country, which will be enough to greatly improve the power supply for both domestic and commercial usage.

He was however unhappy the company was running at 50 percent capacity due to insufficient gas.

“So far we are only getting half of the fuel supply. We are not producing at full capacity. Out of the 560mw, we are producing about 250mw, 50 percent gas is not available so we are trying to resolve it with LNG,” he stressed.

He appealed to government to commence work on the reverse gas flow pipeline from Takoradi to Tema to enable Independent Power Producers (IPPS) have sufficient gas when the Gye Nyame Sankofa field is completed.

Subsequently, the Equatorial Guinea minister was with the convictions that, more partnerships within the African continent to greatly boost revenue and energy supply within continent

He emphasized that if Oil producing countries in Africa work together, they can surpass Oil giants like Saudi Arabia and Russia.

He disclosed that “if African Oil producing countries all work together, we will have a bigger impact than even Saudi Arabia and Russia put together”

Meanwhile, the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko also announced at the summit that government’s decision to halt the implementation of some IPPs for now has prevented the country from losing about 700 million dollars annually.

He noted that government will continue to put in the necessary measures to ensure consistent power supply in the country.