Jubilee partners demand audit of Atuabo Plant
The Jubilee Partners have warned against any hasty decision to connect the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant to the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah.
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They have also demanded an independent audit of the facilities at the plant before hooking it up to the production platform to avert any unexpected accident or blowout that may endanger the multi-billion dollar onshore and offshore investments.
According to a source close to the partners, the audit of the plant and their own facilities before hooking the pipeline would confirm the integrity of the two facilities and their various linkages.
Blow-out
The source said any hasty decision to ship the gas to the plant could lead to a blow-out as a result of uncontrolled release of crude or natural gas from the reservoir through the well-head after pressure control systems had failed.
It said by the request, the partners were not causing delay to the country’s dream of processing the first gas for cheaper power generation.
It explained that for a high-risk industry such as oil and gas, it was important that an independent auditor was appointed to certify the newly completed $900 million plant and the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah production platform.
Auditing the facilities, it said, would ensure that no blame would be apportioned after the tie-in to the FPSO.
According to the source, a preliminary audit had already pointed at a few items that needed to be rectified by the Ghana Gas Company, owners and operators of the plant.
Gas flaring
After obtaining a permit to flare in June, more than 1.3 million standard cubic feet (SCF) of gas has been flared by the Jubilee Partners in the quest to protect the integrity of the country’s oil reserves.
It is expected that several millions of the gas would have been flared before the auditing and final testing, as well as inauguration of the Atuabo Gas plant into service.
The source put the permissible daily volume of gas to be flared at 15 million SCF, accumulating to about 500 million SCF every month.
Bypass
The initial plan was that the Jubilee Partners would create a bypass from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah to the shore at Atuabo and connect it to the pipeline to Aboadze.
However, information available to the Daily Graphic indicates that the bypass was ignored after the partners had invested heavily in the equipment.
Currently, the equipment imported for the bypass are lying idle and have become a cost to the partners and the state.