Ghana wants more gas supply from Nigeria
LNG Lagos II
Plans new 500 million scfpd LNG plant<em
Ghana has unfolded plans to forbid improved supply of liquefied natural gas from Nigeria through the West African Gas Pipeline (WAPG) scheme.
The move may have been prompted by assessed inadequacy of stock currently being supplied the country under the current agreement with Nigeria.
Indeed, Ghana has bemoaned the under-utilisation of multi-billion dollar pipeline, which supplies a paltry 50 million scfpd to the country, out its 460 million scfpd capacity.
The Chief Executive Officer, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Alexander Koffi-Mensah Mould, told The Guardian on the sideline of the Offshore West African Conference and Exhibition (OWA) in Lagos, that his nation feels aggrieved with the situation and seeks review of the gas supply contract signed about 10 years ago.
Mould said Ghana would welcome discussions with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the matter, even as he disclosed that his country is presently working on a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant with a capacity to produce 500 million scfpd and expected to be completed by the end of this year.
“Utilisation of gas is very important for West Africa. Nigeria has abundance of gas but a lot of it is being flared. I understand they have gas infrastructure problem. Nigeria has a pipeline to Ghana and also have LNG trains. It uses most of its gas to produce LNG. They don’t supply Ghana the gas because, the gas gathering system has not being developed,” he said.
According to him the poor utilisation of the abundant gas resources in Nigeria is causing setback for both nations in terms of electricity generation and thereby hindering industrial growth.
“That is why we have power problems because we have not really harnessed the gas. Nigeria needs to think about the gathering system and how much money would be invested in it, and supplying gas to the power sector to produce power and generating electricity. The same way they need to supply gas through the WAGP pipeline, the capacity is about 460million standard cubic feet a day and they pump like 50 mscfpd. It does not make sense, so its important that we work with Nigeria to move enough gas through the pipeline.
“Country like Nigeria has enough gas to produce electricity for the whole of West Africa,” he said.
On the LNG plant, he said: “Ghana is now thinking of LNG regasification. Its crazy, Nigeria has gas, you don’t need to liquefy that gas to sell it to us for regasification, just pass it through the pipeline. There are discussions going on between the private sector because it’s a private sector initiative, to see how we can get Nigeria to invest in the gathering system to move the gas into the pipeline.
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2 Comments
An uplifting development! I have continually hammered on the foolish neglect of our local markets for goods and services. Take for instance this event unfolding now. Ghana has been a train ride beside Nigeria not to talk about all ECOWAS sister nations. Could you imagine what should have obtained now if since inception our market focus have been on this region? Then think about extensions East, Central, South and the sub-Saharan Africa before we go into the political intricacies of other difficult market terrains. As we develop confidence in this march of economic recovery, it makes very worthwhile sense we look exhaustively into our market strategies at the same time. The old world market structure is so shredded that there is exquisite need for re-alignment. Charity begins at home the wise saying goes. We will be foolish to let this opportunity escape our forward movement and leadership. Let it work. Nigeria and Ghana have struggled in tandem since the gory years of fights from colonial rule, independence and as we speak.
it is very sad that a country so blessed with everything, continue to suffer in darkness. it would be more rewarding if Nigeria government borrowed money to capture all the flared gas and sell it to our neighbor and power plant. Nigeria with all the gas, is still using firewood and kerosene, is that pure madness. instead of borrowing money to consume via recurring expenses, let borrow money and capture all the gas, this would provide massive jobs and revenue for the country. where are we exporting our gas now?
We will review and take appropriate action.