Atuabo gas plant 'vital component' arrives weekend

A vital component needed for the completion of the gas processing plant at Atuabo has been produced by the manufacturer and is to be sent to Ghana this weekend.

The gamma ray scanner is a very important equipment needed to test the integrity of the four spherical gas storage facilities. 

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC), Dr George Adja Sipa Yankey, who made this known, said the scanner had been made by a South African manufacturing firm and would be shipped on Saturday. 

Sinopec Inc., the main contractor on the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant, which will produce natural gas using deposits from the Jubilee Fields, feared that the completion of the plant could delay if the scanner did not arrive on time. 

Speaking to the Daily Graphic after a tour of the facility by board members of the GNGC, Dr Yankey said the scanner’s document had been forwarded to the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission for study. 

A German company manufactured the capsules for the scanner and shipped them to South Africa where they were successfully loaded into the camera of the scanner. 

“I can assure the country that on Saturday, the scanner will be airlifted to Accra and it will be on site on Monday for the completion of the project in, at most, three days,” he said. 

He said since LPG needed to be stored after it was produced before transferring it to the loading gantry, the integrity of the spherical storage facilities had to be tested to ensure that there was no leakage.

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Dr Yankey said Ghanaians had been trained in readiness for the completion of the project, adding that there were plans to enhance their capacities through study tours in China and Canada.

Offshore tie-in

Ghana Gas, he said, was also expecting a vessel on April 6, 2014 to carry out an exercise to tie in the line from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah to its riser station offshore.

Currently, more than 45 kilometres flow line from the offshore riser to the shallow waters is going through trenching and by March 31, 2014 it is expected to be completed for testing and inauguration.

Finances

Ghana Gas is the largest recipient of the $3 billion China Development Bank (CDB) loan, which has enabled it to meet its financial obligations to the contractor.

“Issues of finances are no longer a problem between the contractor and GNGC. The only time we will start talking about finance will be after the testing and commissioning of the project,” Dr Yankey explained. 

At Atuabo

Engineers at the project site conducted the board members round facilities at the site. The completed components included reception facilities, inlet separation, gas chilling and de-ethanisation units, fractionation, ethylene, glycol injection and regeneration units. The facility also has water treatment and fire fighting systems, as well as the ability to generate its own power.

The Board Chairman of GNGC, Dr Kwesi Botchwey, expressed satisfaction with the progress of work, and said it was gratifying that the plant would finally deliver gas to the Aboadze Power Enclave.

The focus, he added, had since been to ensure that the plant was completed, and that even though it came with several challenges, all those issues had been resolved.