WAPCo to cut gas supply to VRA at midnight if ...
Gas supply from the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) to the Volta River Authority (VRA) will be cut by midnight today, Thursday, October 15, 2015, if the VRA fails to pay a debt of US$103 million owed by the VRA to the company.
The Managing Director of WAPCo, Mr Walter Perez, who made this known in Accra yesterday, said the decision followed a formal order from N-Gas, the company that ships gas to the VRA, to WAPCo.
If the threat is carried out, it will mean a worsening of the power crisis currently facing the country.
Government is aware
Contrary to the government’s stance that it was not aware of the threat to cut the supply of gas to Ghana, Mr Perez said “we are certain those in positions of authority in Ghana are fully aware of this information and we are hopeful they are taking appropriate action to prevent curtailment”.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr Perez said WAPCo had engaged the VRA, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), the relevant ministries and even the highest level of the government to find a solution to the situation before it reached crisis level.
“Unfortunately, these efforts have not achieved the desired result,” he said with regret.
He said the management of WAPCo was keenly aware of and sensitive to the effect that the directive from N-Gas to curtail the supply of gas could have on power generation in Ghana.
“We find it unfortunate that the VRA’s debt situation has been allowed to deteriorate to the point where it now jeopardises WAPCo’s very existence as a company and, in doing so, also jeopardises the only viable option of providing sufficient on-time offtake assurance for Ghana’s Tweneboa-Enyerra-Ntomme (TEN) and Sankofa developments,” Mr Perez said.
He said WAPCo was hopeful that in spite of the current crisis, the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) remained a critical energy infrastructure for Ghana.
Dialogue will continue
“Further, we are firm in our belief that the WAGP is vital to the on-time and lowest-cost delivery of Ghana’s indigenous natural gas resources. To that end, WAPCo will continue to dialogue with the relevant authorities and trust that WAPCo, a company in which Ghana owns significant shares, will not be allowed to go under,” Mr Perez said.
It would be recalled that the government recently charged the PURC to come up with a debt management strategy to clear the more than $312 million debt, being the cost of supply and transportation of natural gas from Nigeria and the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant to the country’s thermal units in the Tema and Aboadze thermal enclaves.
As of the time of calling for the strategy, the VRA was yet to pay more than $150 million, being the cost of gas transmitted to it by the country’s infant company, Ghana Gas, in addition to $82 million and $100 million payable to WAPCo and N-Gas, respectively.
