President Mahama says this will end the country’s over reliance on the West African gas pipeline which has been inconsistent with supplying gas to the country.
“We had a lot of excitement when the gas pipeline was built hoping that the abundance of Nigerian gas will flow through the pipeline to help all the four countries signed onto the pipeline but the volume has been very disappointing”.
The president was responding to questions, Monday on Ghana’s economy during a Presidential Panel discussion with other heads of state to open The Global African Investment Summit currently underway in London.
At least three plants were taken off line in September after Nigeria stopped supplying gas to Ghana over a strike by its workers. This has been a regular tale which plunges the country into black-outs almost instantly.
The President is also hopeful the country's current energy crisis should stabilize when works on the Atuabo gas processing plant is completed.
Government has announced that the plant should start producing gas for power generation by the end of November.
The facility, which has the capacity to generate about 140 million standard cubic feet of natural gas a day, is estimated to save the country more than $500 million annually when it is substituted for light crude oil in the generation of power.
In addition, it will produce more than 70 per cent of the estimated 240,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) required annually for domestic use in the country.
Ghana is currently enduring a difficult power rationing.
The Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) only last week announced a 24-hour-on;24-hour-off load shedding regime after it was forced to shed over 500 megawatts of power.
That led to an emergency meeting by stakeholders with a plan to purchase crude oil at a cost of $120 million to power the thermal plants.
The ongoing load shedding programme across the country may soon improve considerably following measures taken by power producers to increase generation capacity.
The Bui Dam is now operating at full capacity following a slight improvement in the water level.
Source: myjoyonline.com
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