Studies have shown that using natural gas for electricity generation is cleaner with regards to GHG and relatively cheaper compared to using crude oil, Mr Mark Kofi Mensah, External Relations Manager at the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) has said.
He mentioned that this is one of the reasons why Ghana in recent times converted most of its power generation plants which hitherto run on crude oil to gas to utilize natural gas from the Sankofa and Jubilee fields.
Ghana has between 1.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) and 1.7 (tcf) of gas reserves.
Speaking at a media training programme on the theme: ‘Gas To Power What The Media Need To Know To Drive Effective Discourse’, in Accra for selected journalists, Mr Mark Mensah said natural gas is much cleaner and cheaper.
The programme was organised by the Energy News Africa Limited.
He said that the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) system was initially built to transport gas from Nigeria to Ghana, in an east-to- west directional flow.
But when gas was found in Western Ghana, WAPCo in collaboration with the government of Ghana under the auspices of Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), joined the onshore gas pipeline in the west to the WAGP at Aboadze to transport gas from offshore Western Ghana to Tema.
So now, the WAGP in its bi-directional capacity transports gas from both the east and the west for power generation.
Touching on safety in the gas sector, Mr Mensah observed that it was key in their operations and have, therefore, adopted practices to ensure efficiency in their output.
According to him, there are scheduled maintenance done in WAPCo to ensure the integrity of the WAGP and thereby a reliable supply of gas in the supply chain towards electricity generation.
Commenting on the gas pipeline infrastructure, he said that shareholders invested about one billion dollars but said that the company is yet to recoup the original investment for the shareholders.
In a response to how they relate with communities where gas pipeline passes but do not have access to electricity, Mr Mensah explained that the company’s relations with all host communities are solid and cordial enough for that not to be a problem.
He further explained that all stakeholder communities understand that WAPCo does not produce electricity.
He also tasked the media to be circumspect in their reportage since most of the blames attributed to WAPCo could have been avoided if journalists had checked for the right information from the company before reporting.
Through the ECOWAS protocols, the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company was set up in 1988 to channel gas from Nigeria to Benin, Togo and Ghana.
In an interaction with some journalists who took part in the training, they said the programme was timely and useful.
They expressed joy that the training had enlightened their outlook on gas reporting and expressed the hope that such training workshops would be organised regularly to help them sharpen their skills in gas and oil reporting.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com