[ 2016-07-14 ]

Ghana Gas increases gas supply to VRA
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.

Source - citifmonline.com

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