By Iddi Yire
Accra, Mar 08, GNA – Cabinet, Friday, gave the approval for the construction of a second gas processing plant in the country.
Mr John Abu Jinapor, the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, made the revelation to the Presidential Press Corps after a special Cabinet Meeting to approve the 2025 Economic Policy and Budget Statement of the Government.
A gas processing plant is an industrial facility that removes impurities and contaminants from raw natural gas to produce “pipeline quality” dry natural gas suitable for transportation and distribution to consumers; it cleans and prepares the gas to meet specific market standards before it can be used.
Ghana currently has one Gas Processing Plant at Atuabo in the West Region.
“Cabinet has approved that in partnership and in conjunction with the Finance Ministry, we’re taking immediate steps to construct a second gas processing plant,” Mr Jinapor said.
“This gas processing plant would augment the shortfall and increase supply security.”
Mr Jinapor said the energy sector the Mahama Administration inherited from the Akufo-Addo Administration was riddled with poor infrastructure, huge unsustainable and mounting debts.
He said at the last reconciliation before Cabinet, the energy sector debt stands at over GH¢80 billion.
“ECGs receivables stand at only GH¢8 billion. And so, if ECGs were to collect all their receivables, we would still have a shortfall of more than GH¢70 billion. But what is more, the debt is ballooning and increasing,” the Minister stated.
“The infrastructure, very, very poor, and what we used to call excess capacity now appears dwindled, and we have to start preparing to increase the capacity in order to meet the demand requirements.”
He said they needed about $700 million worth of liquid fuel to fill the fuel deficit.
He said this was because their gas today was inadequate to meet their fuel requirements; and that consequently, the Cabinet had approved a raft of measures aimed at tackling the situation in the medium, long, and even in the short term.
Touching on load shedding, Mr Jinapor said: “Today, let me put on record that we are not shedding load. And so, the demand by the Minority and some people that we publish a load-shedding timetable is mute.
When you are not shedding load, there will be no need to publish a load-shedding timetable.”
“In fact, as we speak, we are exporting about 300 megawatts of power outside Ghana to Burkina Faso, to Benin and to other neighboring countries.”
He said when one had enough and one was exporting power, obviously, there would be no need to publish load-shedding timetable.
He said admittedly, the system was very fragile and very weak, but they have been working around the clock to procure enough fuel and to make some payments to power suppliers to hold the system.
He said it was true that Bridge Power, one of the independent power producers, shut their operations because of mounting liabilities that had not been paid over the months.
Mr Jinapor said the Government had been able to negotiate with them, and that he was happy to announce to Ghanaians that they were back online.
“It’s also true that NGAS threatened to shut down the pipeline from the 6th of March. We have also been able to work with them and to negotiate with them. And gas supply has resumed and increasing from NGAS,” Mr Jinapor said.
He noted that they needed to mobilize additional resources to procure more fuel and keep the power sector running.
GNA