The Ghana National Gas Company Limited (Ghana Gas), has told Citi Business News of an increased supply of gas from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah following the resumption of operations on the floating vessel on Wednesday, July 13, 2016.
According to the company, it has therefore increased its supply of gas to the VRA by about 10 million standard cubic feet of gas, that is, from 45 million standard cubic feet to 55 million standard cubic feet.
Tullow, on Tuesday, July 12, shut down the FPSO due to faults on all Fire and Gas systems as well as VFD monitors on the facility.
Operators subsequently indicated of resumption in the flow of gas at an initial 50 million standard cubic feet.
Speaking to Citi Business News on Wednesday, the Corporate Affairs Manager of Ghana Gas, Alfred Ogbamey confirmed the increased supply of gas from the 44 million standard cubic feet to about 57 million standard cubic feet.
“As of Wednesday morning, the FPSO was providing us with 43.6 million standard cubic feet and we were supplying the VRA with 42.8 million standard cubic feet. As at Wednesday evening, that had increased to 57.1 million standard cubic feet and we are supplying VRA with 55.5 million standard cubic feet, so there is an improvement,” he said.
The development is also likely to reflect in the amount of power generation from the Volta River Authority which was early this week reported to be receiving less quantities of supply of gas from Ghana Gas.
The shortfall has also culminated in the erratic power supply to consumers.
A situation Ghana Gas feared could worsen if the shortfall in gas supply persisted.
Tullow on Wednesday was also optimistic the AMERI power plant could resume operations with the flow of gas increasing above 50 million standard cubic feet.
Meanwhile Alfred Ogbamey is hopeful of an increase in gas supplies from the FPSO all other factors being constant.
“Indeed they had confirmed they may not go beyond 50 million but that increased just within an hour. I do not anticipate that they will be able to go above that but I think that will also depend on a number of factors, if the situation allows, I am sure they would increase the volumes that they supply to us,” he added.
VRA sheds off 230 megawatts of power
It appears Tullow has been truthful with the assurance to the Ghana Gas that it will restore the situation by the close of the week.
But consumers are still bearing the brunt of the intermittent power cuts even though government has declined to declare a load shedding regime neither will it provide a load shedding time table to guide decisions.
VRA owes about 4 billion cedis
However, it has emerged that the VRA owes some top banks in the country about 4 billion cedis equivalent to 1.5 billion dollars.
The Ministry of Finance has however given indication that government has initiated a process to raise 300 million cedis from some local banks to restructure the debts of the VRA.
Government has under this arrangement, also secured a reduction of the interest of the cedi component from 32 percent to 22 percent.
Meanwhile the dollar component has been reduced from 11 percent to 8.5 percent.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana