The Ghana National Gas Company has hinted to Citi Business News that operational challenges at the Atuabo Gas Processing plant will be fixed by Sunday.
According to Ghana Gas an order has been placed for a replacement of a faulty equipment on the gas plant which has resulted in the plant’s inability to receive the 60 million standard cubic feet of gas from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah.
[contextly_sidebar id=”aOfWpdN5AAiz5d3MdSxDKey9kCU2HROb”]The Ministry of Power yesterday [Wednesday] issued a statement attributing the current power outages being experienced in parts of the country to the limited supply of lean gas from the Ghana National Gas Company.
According to the ministry, the situation which has lasted for about two days, has also affected power production at the Aboadze Thermal plant in the Western region.
The statement further stated “the Thermal Plant at Aboadze power plant is receiving a limited supply of lean gas from the Ghana National Gas Company over the last two days, resulting in operational challenges at the Atuabo Gas Processing plant.”
But in an interview with Citi Business News the Communications Manager of the Ghana Gas Company, Alfred Ogbarmey assured the public that Ghana Gas will by Sunday replace the faulty part as they are able to only supply the Aboadze Thermal plant with a daily amount of 24 mmscf of gas.
“As I speak to you we have for the past 48 hours had a challenge with a faulty knock centre, a key equipment that helps us to measure, determine and do a few other things with the kind of gas we receive and are able to pass on. The local contractor that is responsible for the supply of that part says they have run out of stock,” the Communications Manager indicated.
Alfred Ogbarmey however intimated that efforts are underway to rectify the situation by the weekend.
“Indeed we were willing to send somebody to Barcelona, Spain to bring the equipment down but fortunately it has been dispatched and it is scheduled to arrive in the country by Friday. So we expect that once it arrives on Friday, by the weekend, all things being equal, the challenges with our faulty knock centre would have been resolved,”
“As a result we will be able to take the present 60 million standard cubic feet of gas from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah and pass it to VRA,”he observed.
POWER MINISTRY
The Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor earlier in an interview with Citi Business News assured that efforts are being put in place to augment the supply of fuel to the power plants in the coming days.
“I have spoken to VRA and the other engineers and they are making frantic efforts to bring in some plants. For instance we intend running both units of KTPP on diesel but the objective is to try as much as possible to close the deficit as much as possible,” John Jinapor explained.
John Jinapor further indicated that engineers may eventually switch fuel plants to crude oil, as they are keenly monitoring the situation in the coming days.
“Anytime there is a disruption it means that some of the plants will momentarily go down, but you will have to monitor because receiving limited gas doesn’t mean immediately switching the thermal plant from gas to light crude,” he observed.
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By: Norvan Acquah-Hayford/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
