Uncategorized

Ghana: VRA to start using Jubilee gas by end of December

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The VRA has said that it will be able to receive and utilize the full

volume of gas produced from the Jubilee Field when TICO thermal plants

in Takoradi become operational by close of the year.

The operation of TICO, which is also expected to run solely on gas

from the Jubilee Field, will add about 340 megawatts of power to the

national grid and help to ease the current energy supply challenges.

Gas supplied by the Ghana Gas Company — an entity whose merger with

the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) — has been endorsed

with approval from the 2015 budget that proposed the merger.

The coming on-stream of the country’s gas could mean a 20 percent

reduction in fuel costs to the power industry, or savings of $2billion

over a 10-year period. For the industry as a whole, this is enough to

fund one 400MW power plant every other year.

Again, it will reduce the cost of maintenance for thermal plants by

some 50 percent, according to the VRA and increase the availability of

thermal plants.

Aside from Jubilee, the country is expecting gas from other fields

like Sankofa and the TEN project area.

In the short- to medium- term, however, local gas supply will still

not meet the demand even if all these projects come on board – hence

the reliance on Nigeria for gas via the West African Gas Pipeline to

augment local production.

Producers expect a peak supply of about 80million standard cubic feet

of gas from Nigeria and about 120 million standard cubic feet of gas

from Jubilee Field in Ghana, bringing the total supply to about

200million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

However, Ghana’s domestic gas requirement for power generation is

estimated at 350million standard cubic feet per day. This will leave a

deficit in gas-supply of about 150million standard cubic feet.

The VRA has therefore signed agreements for additional gas supply with

other producers outside the NGas – current supplier of the commodity

from Nigeria – for supply of the commodity via the West African Gas

Pipeline.

Meanwhile, the Energy Ministry is exploring ways of creating a reverse

flow system so that when gas produced is beyond the capacity of

thermal plants sited in Aboadze, it can be channelled to power other

thermal plants sited in Tema.

The new VRA Kpone thermal plant, which is under construction, the

200MW gas- reliant Sunon Asogli thermal plant and the CENIT plant are

all sited in Tema.

Meanwhile, the country is said to have almost exhausted its hydropower

potential with Bui coming on stream; this means a shift toward thermal

power, which requires either crude oil or gas.

Credit: Myjoyonline

Kofi Oppong Kyekyeku

I am a Ghanaian Broadcast Journalist/Writer who has an interest in General News, Sports, Entertainment, Health, Lifestyle and many more.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button
Close
Close