Ghana Gas resumes supply to VRA
The Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas) has resumed supply of lean gas to the Volta River Authority (VRA).
This followed the successful repair of the faulty compressor on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, which broke down on July 3 this year, resulting in the shutdown of gas export to the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant.
As a result, Ghana Gas has also recommenced the production of condensate and liquefied Petroleum gas (LPG) just as shortage of LPG had begun hitting parts of the national capital and other regions.
The faulty compressor on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah also led to reduction in oil production at the Jubilee Fields, dropping from 110,000 barrels per day to 65,000 barrels.
Officials say the resumption would not only result in the supply of power to reduce the current load-shedding exercise, but also replenish the stock of LPG across the country to avert a crisis.
Production volumes
The Communications Manager of Ghana Gas, Mr Alfred Ogbamey, confirmed the resumption of production at the Atuabo onshore facility to the Daily Graphic and described it as timely and swift on the part of the engineers.
“We’re back in production. We’ve been ramping up from an initial 40 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) daily to VRA last Monday (August 3) and are presently supplying 54 mmscf. We are also producing 200 metric tonnes of LPG and 35 metric tonnes of condensate daily,” he said.
The current production schedule, he said, should ease whatever pressures existed in the system and that optimum daily production of 500 metric tonnes a day would meet 75 per cent of the current national demands of 240,000 metric tonnes yearly.
“The flow of gas to Aboadze would also lead to a 50 per cent reduction in the cost of generating electricity by the nation’s biggest electricity supplier. The non-availability of lean gas to the VRA over the past month led to a 50 per cent hike in the cost of electricity per kilowatt generated with light crude oil over the period,” he added.
National LPG shortage
As of mid-morning last Tuesday (August 4), queues for LPG had started forming at a number of LPG stations in the regions, as the Point of Sales boldly displayed “No Gas”.
The resumption of supply and subsequent replenishing of stock on the local LPG market is set to avert panic buying. Insiders of the industry had attributed the shortage to the month-long non-production of LPG by Ghana Gas.
The operators were of the view that the situation in the past few weeks had already sparked fears and triggered panic buying as consumers thought that the nation could revisit the period of intermittent shortages of LPG on the market.
Shutdown
Although there were two compressors on the FPSO, both were non-functional at the time of the shutdown. The main compressor went off at a time when the back-up compressor was also faulty, creating further delays in attempts to restart the gas export system.
Mr Ogbamey said as a midstream company along the oil and gas value chain, it was vulnerable to impact the company’s upstream suppliers and downstream off-takers of lean gas, LPG and condensate.
He further explained that any upset on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, run by the Jubilee Field partners, had a ripple effect on Ghana Gas, with the company unable to do much to alter it.
“The mandate of addressing challenges on the FPSO rests with Tullow and Partners. Challenges with their systems affect us. In the same way, the inability of the VRA and other downstream off-takers of LPG and condensate to offtake what Ghana Gas produces could halt production activities at Atuabo,” he added.
The Head of Communications of the VRA, Mr Samuel Fletcher, confirmed that they were receiving lean gas from Atuabo.
He said the resumption of gas supply to the VRA was comforting as it would not only reduce the cost of generation from Aboadze, but also give the VRA additional capacity and reduce the deficit “we are grappling with”.
Power supply picks up
Meanwhile, the power supply system is gradually picking up with the completion of repair works on the compressor of the FPSO.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has from Tuesday, August 4, 2015 recorded a marginal increase in power available to it for distribution to consumers.
As a result, officials, on the instructions of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), are shedding between 300 and 350 megawatts as against the 550-600 that had been the case over the last couple of weeks.
Although the ECG’s load-shedding timetable outlined that consumers were to endure a 24-hour outage and 12-hour power, the last few days has seen consumers enjoying 48-72 hours of power.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the situation, the Deputy Minister of Power, Mr John Jinapor, attributed this to the transmission of some 54 mmscf of natural gas as well as an increase in supply from the West African Gas Power Company (WAPCo) to power the VRA’s thermal generation units.
“We are not yet out of the woods,” the elated Deputy Minister emphasised.
Ghana Gas
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Gas, Dr George Sipa Yankey, also told the Daily Graphic that the company had from Monday to Wednesday supplied 49 million and 54 mmscf of lean gas per stream per day to the VRA, following the resumption in the exportation of gas from Tullow and Partners.
“By Tullow’s programme to Ghana Gas, they will in the ensuing days ramp up gradually in order not to pressurise the system. Thus from August 9 to 12, they will ramp up at 50 million cubic feet per day, go to 80 million cubic feet from August 13 to 15 and 120 million cubic feet per day by August 16,” Dr Yankey pointed out.
