Accra, April 13, GNA – The Managing Director of the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), Mr Gregory Germani, says the Company’s tariffs are now more competitive, fair, and transparent and assures adequate and meaningful returns on investment.
Mr Germani, who was speaking at the 10th Anniversary celebration of the start of Commercial Operations of the Company in Tema, said achievements and operational focus were not limited to gas transmission alone.
WAPCo, owner and operator of the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), commenced commercial operations in 2011 by transporting Natural Gas in Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana in a safe, responsible, and reliable manner to create value for our diverse stakeholders.
WAPCo is owned by Chevron West African Gas Pipeline Limited (36.9%); Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (24.9%); Shell Overseas Holdings Limited (17.9%); and Takoradi Power Company Limited (16.3%), Societe Togolaise de Gaz (2%) and Societe BenGaz S.A. (2%).
He said to help build capacity in the gas sector, most in-country job vacancies, were filled locally, contributing to improvement in the quality of life in the host communities.
He said in Ghana, the company’s social investment programmes were intentionally focused on education, health, and capacity building.
“Our social interventions are driven by our solid relationships with our communities and WAPCo has a longstanding commitment to providing critical support to help advance social progress in these communities,” he said.
He said it was important to remember that the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) was the product of a vision from the Economic Community of West African States, a dream of a gas pipeline across the West African sub region, with a promise of economic integration among member states.
“You will agree with me that the establishment of the WAGP with its guarantees of cost-effective, secure, cleaner, and reliable energy for power generation has contributed to regional economic growth and development, benefiting families, communities, businesses, and industries across the region,” he added.
Mr Germani said over the years, WAPCo in collaboration with shareholders and key regional stakeholders had been able to achieve several key milestones.
He said with support from the government, through the Ministry of Energy and other partners, an extension of the WAGP was completed as part of the larger Takoradi to Tema Interconnection Project (TTIP).
“This has added Ghana’s natural gas resources to supply customers on the WAGP,” he said.
TTIP involved an expansion of the delivery capacity from 140 MMscfd to 235 MMscfd at their facility in Tema and a new control room with added key equipment to improve monitoring and control of the facility.
The expanded capacity at the site became commercially operational on June 1, 2020.
“We would like to thank the Minister of Energy for graciously unveiling a commemorative monument at our facility this morning to enshrine this accomplishment,” he said.
Following the completion of TTIP, the combination of gas supply from both Nigeria and Ghana and growing demand across our delivery stations in Tema, Lomé, and Cotonou, the WAGP is seeing record levels of delivered volumes, and project growth on the horizon.
Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, a Deputy Minister of Energy, called on WAPCo and the gas producers to review their business plans with the view to taking advantage of new emerging markets.
“Whilst pursuing our resolve to find innovative ways of financing gas projects in line with our policy to develop our gas resources as transition fuel for the transformation of our economies,” he said.
The Minister urged WAPCo to leverage the experiences gained to further collaborate with other partners in the sector to make Ghana a hub for reliable, efficient, and cleaner generation of power, not only for the development of Ghana alone but for the entire region of West Africa.
He said, “we are celebrating 10 years of commercial operations, which is a testament to the fact that regional integration and development can be achieved when countries put their efforts together.”
He said although Ghana had undertaken to develop its own domestic fields for obvious economic and strategic reasons, this had in no way impacted the operations of WAPCo or made the pipeline redundant.
The Minister said despite the challenges encountered in the past, the contribution of WAGP in ensuring the energy security of the country could not be understated and the government was relentless in making sure, WAPCo’s operations become financially stable.
GNA