[ 2011-04-19 ]

Bost now has additional mandate as a strategic transmitter of natural gas across the country and beyond

BOST rolls out US$600m plan to create thousands of jobs
Ghana's Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation
Company Ltd (BOST) is completing feasibility
studies to construct a modern gas transmission
system to serve Ghana and its neighbouring
countries in support of its additional mandate to
become the national transporter of natural gas.

To start with, the company says it will construct
a gas terminal at Pumpuni, near Takoradi in the
Western Region, and also develop the first phase
of what it calls the Western Corridor Transmission
System, all estimated at US$600 million, to start
this year and end in 2013.

The government will solely fund the project
through bilateral arrangements.

The multi-million dollar project is expected to
create thousands of jobs for Ghanaians and give
meaning to the local content and local
participation in the petroleum industry policy
which aims at indigenising the oil and gas
industry.

Right from the blast, the monumental project will
generate jobs for artisans, metal fabricators,
welders, carpenters, caterers, drivers, engineers,
among others, but the leadership of BOST told the
GRAPHIC BUSINESS that residents of the project
area should step ahead and acquire some skills in
anticipation of employment opportunities.

Some of the major industries in the Western and
Central regions that can breathe a sigh of relief
are the Abosso Glass Factory, the integrated
alumina processing industry of which Sekondi will
now be the hub, the Bokazo and Saltpond ceramic
factories and the Nsuta manganese processing
project.

The gas processing plant is expected to produce
dry gas for power generation, minerals processing
and petrochemicals; natural gas liquids, as well
as deliver LPG in volumes of about five times what
is currently produced by the Tema Oil Refinery
(TOR).

BOST, which already owns and operates Ghana’s
petroleum pipelines and storage facilities, now
also has the mandate to develop the Natural Gas
Transmission System and the bulk purchase of
natural gas from suppliers (in Nigeria and
elsewhere) and subsequent supply to distribution
franchise operators who will supply gas to various
end-users or customers.

Ghana has a zero-gas flaring policy, which has
compelled the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation
(GNPC) to initiate the development of the Jubilee
gas processing plant towards the promotion of
gas-based industrialisation.

BOST has subsequently been given an expanded
mandate to be the sole bulk purchaser of natural
gas from the jubilee fields for transmission
anywhere.

According to BOST, its initial infrastructure
would focus on transporting natural gas to some
strategic projects to boost Ghana’s
industrialisation drive. Some of the projects
date back to the post-independence era but had to
be abandoned for various reasons.

The Managing Director of BOST, Dr Yaw Akoto, told
the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an interview that BOST had
moved swiftly with plans to build transmission
infrastructure in the Western and Eastern
corridors of Ghana due to its expanded mandate to
facilitate the movement of natural gas and LPG
across the country.

The appointment of BOST as the developer and owner
of the interconnected natural gas transmission
system received Cabinet approval in September
2007, in accordance with the Energy Commission
Act, Act 541.

Dr Akoto said pursuant to its enlarged mandate,
BOST had created a strategic subsidiary – the
Natural Gas Transmission Utility (NGTU) – to
focus on this area, adding that the company had
also acquired more than 300 acres of land at
Pumpuni Reef to build the natural gas hub and
dispatch centre.

“Natural gas from the GNPC processing facility
and other supply points will be stored for further
delivery through the transmission system to
various locations. There will be various supply
and demand balancing points across the country,”
the BOST managing director said.

Since this mandate, Dr Akoto said, the company has
long positioned itself to take advantage of the
gas from the West African Gas Pipeline to
initially address the secondary gas market in
Tema.

Throwing light on the project, the managing
director said the Western Corridor Gas
Transmission System would have a 123-km, 20-inch
pipeline laid to transport gas from jubilee fields
gas processing plants (GPPs) to terminate at the
BOST Terminal at Pumpuni Reef, from where BOST
transmission networks will originate.

From the BOST Terminal, the pipeline would be
extended to Aboadze (where the Volta River
Authority has a thermal power plant), which would
also provide the interconnection with the West
African Gas Pipeline to ensure a reverse flow
through WAGP to Tema.

Dr Akoto said BOST would also have gas
transported from the BOST Terminal to connect the
Sekondi Export Processing Zone to fire a planned
200 MW natural gas co-generation power plant to
serve a proposed alumina refinery and other plants
in the export processing zone.

Also, there would be a 350-km gas pipeline to
initially terminate in Kumasi to feed a planned
natural gas fired thermal power plant.

“This pipeline will also pass through other
strategic mineral processing project areas in the
Western Region, namely, an alumina refinery in the
export processing zone, the Nsuta manganese
processing project; the Oppong Manso Iron project
to produce ferro-alloy products, as well as the
Abosso Glass factory,” he stated.

Source - Daily Graphic

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