The Government will, next week, commence negotiations with officials of N-Gas Limited of Nigeria to pay $37.5 million, being part of the debt owed for the supply of gas to power plants in Ghana.
The move is to ensure the continued supply of gas after the mandatory ongoing maintenance work on the gas pipelines, to be completed on March 2, 2025.
Mr John Abdulai Jinapor, the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, told journalists after touring the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), the regulating and metering station in Tema, on Friday, to learn about the progress of work.
WAPCo, operators of the 569-kilometre pipeline from Nigeria through Tema to Takoradi in Ghana, temporarily shut down gas transmission on February 5, 2025, to enable it to undertake maintenance work, which includes cleaning and inspections of the line.
Mr Jinapor said N-Gas issued a letter threatening to cease the supply of gas to Ghana due to a 75-million dollar debt incurred over the years.
“Government’s concentration is to solve the problem. We will do everything possible to ensure that after the gas pipeline cleaning activity, gas flow resumes to keep the lights on because the health and growth of the economy depends on access to stable power,” he said.
He commended WAPCo and its stakeholder in the cleaning activity for working frantically to ensure that the timelines were met.
Dr Isaac Adjei Doku, the General Manager, Corporate Affairs, briefing the Minister and his officials, gave an assurance that barring any unforeseen circumstances, the ongoing maintenance work on the gas pipelines will be completed on March 2, 2025.
He explained that the shutdown was to enable them to launch the Pipeline Inspection Gauge (PIG) into the pipeline to clean and inspect it as required by the regulations.
Dr Doku stated that three PIGs have been successfully launched from Tema to Takoradi with the fourth one on its way, expected to be received in the early hours of Saturday, February 22.
He explained that with the arrival of the fourth one, the final PIG, which was referred to as the intelligent PIG, would be launched to complete the process.
The intelligent PIG helps to collect data on the interior of the pipeline.
As part of the exercise, WAPCo was replacing two subsea valves passing through Tema and Cotonou, explaining that the replacement vessel got into position on Monday, 18 kilometers in the sea from the Tema Regulating and Metering Station.
GNA
