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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
