The Ghana Electrical Contractors Association, a group in the Republic of Ghana, has denied knowledge of a petition seeking the removal of the Managing Director of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu.
According to the group, the said petition was not issued by the association, neither was it issued by their members.
In the view of the Association, some faceless people in the ECG or government are behind the purported petition with the aim of tarnishing the image of the ECG’s MD in order to get him removed and replaced with their favourite person.
Speaking in an interview with the President of the Association, Nana Addo Tetebo stated that the petition lacked merit.
“The petition is not coming from our secretariat and we think it lacks merit,” he said.
Touching on the issue of delay in payment for contracts executed by GECA members for ECG and PDS which was raised in the petition, the President of the Association noted that it is true that both ECG and PDS owe their members.
He, however, explained that the leadership of the Association held a meeting with the ECG MD in February 2021 and both parties agreed on a road map for the settlement of payments due to members of the Association.
He questioned whether it would be fair for an Association, which had met with ECG MD and agreed on a payment plan, to make a u-turn and demand the removal of ECG MD.
Nana Addo Tetebo, President of Ghana Electrical Contractors Association
He charged those behind the purported petition not to drag the Association into any politics, saying: ”As an Association, we believe in dialogue and do not dabble in politics as the petition sought to create.”
Energynewsafrica.com’s checks at the ECG revealed that when the Power Distribution Services (PDS) Company Limited took over the power distribution business of ECG on March 1, 2019, under the concession because of the Ghana Power Compact II, PDS awarded contracts to some electrical contractors.
However, the Government of Ghana terminated the agreement on October 23, 2019, and returned the distribution business to ECG.
Energynewsafrica.com understands that the contractors assumed that once the business had returned to ECG, it should be able to settle all PDSs’ outstanding debts owed them.
Checks by energynewsafrica.com indicate that PDS had not handed over fully to ECG because it had filed a case in court challenging the Government of Ghana’s decision to terminate the transaction.
This apparently has made it difficult for ECG to settle the electrical contractors.
This development coupled with the implementation of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism which allows ECG to collect revenue from power sales and shared among players in the electricity value chain has also limited the flow of revenue to ECG.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Israeli-based renewables firm Energix Energy has announced its plans to invest $5.4 billion to develop what the company is claiming will be the world’s largest green hydrogen production plant.
The Base One plant will be sited in Ceara in Brazil and will be able to produce 600 million KG’s of green hydrogen per annum.
The electrolysis facility will be powered entirely by renewable energy, initially 3.4GW of solar and onshore wind.
Ceará’s potential for renewable energy generation, coupled with access to a strategic deep-sea port to facilitate the export of hydrogen, was key to the choice of the scoped 500-hectare site for the $5.4 billion investment.
The project is expected to take between three and four years to build. To date, Energix Energy has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with consulting firm Black & Veatch to undertake feasibility studies central to the development of the project.
Gary Martin, a managing director with Black & Veatch’s Oil & Gas business, said: “Facilities such as the one proposed by Enegix are at the heart of making hydrogen a core component of a zero-carbon global economy.”
“Black & Veatch’s team has the capability to assess all aspects of the project, with transferable skills that cover hydrogen production, handling, transportation, storage and distribution; following the highest standards for safety and efficiency. Black & Veatch is well-positioned to provide these type of services, contributing to the transition of fossil fuels to hydrogen,” said Wesley Cooke, Enegix founder and CEO.
Ghana’s largest power generation company, Volta River Authority (VRA), on Friday, started the distribution of educational materials and items intended to help fight Covid-19 to 16,000 pupils in 30 selected schools in five regions of Ghana.
The items include VRA branded exercise books, water bottles, pencils, pens, mathematical sets, hand sanitizers and Veronica buckets.
The beneficiary pupils are drawn from Greater Accra, Volta Region, Eastern Region, Western Region and Bono East.
Speaking at the commencement of the distribution of the items at Nkwakubew in the Asuogyaman District in the Eastern Region, the Chief Executive Officer of VRA, Ing.Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa noted that the distribution of the educational and covid-19 materials was part of the Authority’s 60th Anniversary celebration.
He said the Authority invested GHS2 million in procuring the items with the aim of supporting the development of school children in their operational areas.
Human development, he said is paramount to the Authority, hence the decision to undertake the exercise.
Ing. Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa urged the beneficiaries to make good use of the items by studying hard in other to excel academically.
The VRA CEO noted that the outbreak of Covid-19 has taught the world the need to appreciate science and technology, saying VRA had, therefore, decided to use drones to receive some of the items to enable the school children develop interest in science and technology.
The District Chief Executive for Asuogyaman, Hon. Samuel Agyekum commended VRA for taking interest in the development of the people in the area.
He charged the beneficiary school children to take advantage of the items and study hard to improve their academic performance.
The District Director for Education, Mrs Theodora Kutorkor Entee said the district has been benefiting a lot from VRA and praised the Authority for continuously supporting the district.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
The UK government has vowed to protect up to 40,000 oil and gas jobs in the North Sea during the country’s transition to a net-zero economy, which will involve shrinking oil and gas production.
The oil and gas industry has, in turn, vowed to reduce emissions from its activities by 10 percent over the next five years and by 25 percent by 2027. By 2030, emissions should be reduced by 50 percent.
This will involve an investment of some $22 billion (16 billion pounds), which will be shared by the industry and the government. The investment will comprise replacing fossil fuel-derived offshore platform power supplies with power from renewable sources, carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen production.
In a statement, the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy said, “The sector deal between the UK government and oil and gas industry will support workers, businesses, and the supply chain through this transition by harnessing the industry’s existing capabilities, infrastructure and private investment potential to exploit new and emerging technologies such as hydrogen production, Carbon Capture Usage and Storage, offshore wind and decommissioning.”
As part of the deal, the department said, the government will work with the industry to train new talent for a lower-carbon future and to decarbonize what oil and gas production is still active in the North Sea “in preparation for a net zero future by 2050.”
What’s more, the statement read, the deal between the government and the industry will seek to foster an attractive business environment that will bring companies from other industries to the UK.
Meanwhile, thanks to the deal, some 60 million tons in carbon dioxide emissions should be cut from the oil and gas industry’s total by 2030, of which 15 million tons from oil and gas production is on the UK continental shelf. The industry accounts for 3.5 percent of the UK’s total emissions.
Source:Oilprice.com
Ghana is looking at having a long term partnership with the Tullow Oil Plc, Ireland-based oil and gas firm, Ghana’s Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has said.
“We want to have a long-term partnership with the company and I believe it is important to look back at our relationship and see how we can move on,” Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh said during a virtual meeting with the CEO of Tullow Oil Plc, Mr. Rahul Dhir.
The Managing Director of Tullow Ghana Ltd, Mr. Wissam Al-Monthiry, was in attendance, together with other leading executives of the company in Ghana.
The purpose of the meeting was for the company to brief the new Minister about its operations in Ghana, its strategic direction for 2021 and beyond and also to discuss a number of outstanding issues between Tullow Oil and the Government of Ghana.
Tullow, which is the lead operator of Ghana’s Jubilee Field in the Western Region, recently, announced plans to start the drilling of a new production well at the Jubilee Oil Field in the Republic of Ghana in the second quarter of 2021.
Alongside the drilling of the new production well, the company also plans to undertake water injection to support the field, as well as one gas injection well at TEN which supports Ntomme-09 well which was drilled last year.
“A drilling rig is being mobilised to Ghana to commence operations in the second quarter of the year. The first new production well on Jubilee is forecast to be onstream in the third quarter,” the company said in January this year.
Commenting on Tullow’s 2021 plan for Ghana, the sector Minister expressed delight in learning about Tullow Oil’s plans to scale up its investments in the country.
According to him, the current administration believes in the ability of individuals and entities to make profits from their investments, noting that Tullow and others invested in Ghana when no-one thought it was worth doing so.
Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh acknowledged Tullow’s significant contribution to the country’s education sector in particular as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) functions.
“The government believes in honesty and collaboration for a ‘win-win’ situation, and that for the company’s concerns about outstanding issues to be resolved, it was important to adopt the shortest path towards that goal,” he concluded.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
French multinational oil and gas firm, Total intends to resume work at the Mozambique LNG site after the government has provided assurances of improved security.
The company demobilised workers following various security incidents in December 2020.
These culminated in an attack at the edge of the Afungi LNG Park, home of the two train 13.1 million tonne per year project.
Total said it had been working with the Mozambique government on an action plan.
This has the aim of “reinforcing, in a sustained manner, the security of the Afungi site and of the surrounding area and neighbouring villages”.
As such, the Mozambique government has established a 25 km perimeter around the Mozambique LNG site, defining this as a “special security area”.
It has created a roadmap to improve security. This includes reinforcing security infrastructure and strengthening public security forces, Total said.
As a result, the company has begun a gradual remobilisation of the project workforce and resumption of construction. Community development programmes have also resumed.
Total and Mozambique signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in July 2020. Under this agreement, the Ministry of Defence and the Interior provides security forces for the area, including the special security area.
Mozambique has given commitments that its forces working to secure Mozambique LNG will act according to the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR) and international human rights standards, Total said.
Mozambique LNG does not use any armed security providers itself, it said.
Amnesty International has raised concerns in a recent report around war crimes in the northern Cabo Delgado Province.
Dyck Advisory Group (DAG) appears to have lost its contract for work in Mozambique.
Total also noted that it had satisfied all conditions around its project financing, agreed in July 2020. It will take a first drawdown of cash at the beginning of this April.
The French company said it remained committed to delivering a first LNG cargo from the Mozambique project in 2024.
After last year’s lowest spending on new field developments in 30 years, the offshore oil and gas sector is set to significantly increase capital expenditures this year to around US$44 billion, according to Westwood Global Energy Group.
Offshore upstream oil and gas spending is expected to surge to around US$44 billion this year, compared to just US$12.3 billion worth of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts awarded in 2020. In 2019, before the pandemic hit oil demand and prices, the EPC contracts in the offshore oil and gas industry were around US$40 billion.
“In 2021, we will see a significant uptick in activity,” Thom Payne, Head of Offshore at Westwood Global Energy Group said at Riviera Maritime Media’s Annual Offshore Support Journal virtual conference and exhibition on Wednesday.
Most of this year’s capital expenditure and the biggest EPC contracts will go to major natural gas projects offshore Australia and deepwater oil project developments offshore South America.
The major increase in 2021, part of which will come from the deferred spend in 2020, will also help the offshore rig and support vessel markets this year, Payne said at the conference.
Last month, Payne wrote in an analysis that offshore investment is set for a rapid rebound this year, driven by deferred projects from 2020 and a “resurgent Petrobras.”
Last year, offshore investment slumped to the lowest in more than 30 years as companies slashed capex by 30 percent on average and postponed or stalled as much as US$54 billion of 2020 offshore EPC contract awards, Payne said.
Offshore oil has already started to show signs of emerging from last year’s crisis, as costs have been slashed since the previous downturn of 2015-2016. Deepwater oil breakevens have dropped to below those of U.S. shale supply, making deepwater one of the cheapest new sources of oil supply globally, Rystad Energy said last year.
According to the energy research firm, operators are expected to commit to developing a record number of offshore oil and gas projects over the next five years, with deepwater projects set for the most impressive growth.
Source:Oilprice.com
Ghana’s Parliament has approved a budgetary allocation of GH¢854,062,706 for the country’s Ministry of Energy for its activities for 2021.
According to the legislative body, the approval of the amount would go a long way to support the sector’s goal of providing secure, safe and reliable supply of energy to promote economic growth in the West African nation.
The Ministry of Energy has planned to undertake various projects to improve power generation and transmission sub-sector in the country.
Some of these projects include the completion of phase 1B of the Early Power project to bring the installed capacity to 200MW, the ongoing PPA renegotiations, continue works on the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam and repair/replacement of T3 Gas Turbines.
The Ministry also intends to connect 766 towns to the national grid and continue on-going rural electrification projects under the Self-Help Electrification Project (SHEP)-4 and SHEP-5 across the country.
As part of the Ministry’s effort at conserving energy, a total of five million LED bulbs (5W, 9W and 13W) would be distributed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
Additionally, the Ministry plans to install streetlights on an estimated minimum of 300km stretch of roads and streets in some selected metropolises, municipalities and districts across the country.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo says his administration is committed to ensuring that the country’s petroleum revenues are well managed for the benefit of Ghanaians.
He said government was determined to leverage the country’s hydrocarbon resources for the economic transformation of Ghana.
President Akufo-Addo gave the assurance while delivering a speech at the launch of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) in Accra on Wednesday.
PIAC, established in 2011, is an independent statutory body mandated to promote transparency and accountability in the management of petroleum revenues in Ghana. The anniversary celebration will be observed on the theme: “Strengthening Citizens Ownership and Understanding of PIAC and its Oversight of Petroleum Revenue Management”.
Congratulating PIAC on its decade of existence, President Akufo-Addo noted that the statutory body since its inception had lived up to its mandate as set out in the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA), 2011 (Act 815), and applauded it for performing its functions creditably and successfully.
According to him, although relations between the PIAC and government had sometimes been stormy in the past, his administration since 2017 had largely enjoyed cordial and fruitful interaction with the body, resulting in the prudent use of Ghana’s petroleum revenues for the welfare and benefit of Ghanaians.
The President reiterated on government’s commitment to supporting the PIAC to ensure the efficient management of petroleum revenues for sustainable development, assuring that all budgetary allocation made to the body would be forthcoming and on time to enable it to fulfil its mandate.
He however drew attention to the delay in transmission of information between the PIAC and the Ministry of Finance, resulting in distortions in deadline schedules of reporting obligations of the two institutions, which sometimes stoked needless controversy, and suggested an amendment of the relevant provisions in the Petroleum Revenue Management Act to resolve the situation.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s new Minister for Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, on Tuesday, received a delegation from Sunon Asogli Power Ghana Ltd, Ghana’s largest independent power generation company at the Ministry of Energy.
The six-member delegation was led by Togbe Afede XIV, co-founder of the company and Chairman of Sunon Asogli Power Ghana Ltd, Mr Yang Qun.
The purpose of their visit was to formally welcome the new Energy Minister into the country’s energy sector and also brief him on the company’s profile and its operations in Ghana as well as its future plans.
Established in 2007 by Shenzhen Energy Group Co., Ltd, as a joint venture, Sunon Asogli Power has been a longstanding partner in delivering energy in the Republic of Ghana with its 560MW plant.
Currently, the company holds 15 percent market share of the total power generation transmitted onto the national grid.
Although the company has signed Take-or-Pay agreement with Ghana’s electricity off taker, ECG, the company has not invoiced the ECG for idle capacity charges since 2010 when it started operations.
Energynewsafrica.com understands that this idle capacity charges has accumulated to about $250 million. However, the company has no intension of asking ECG and, for that matter Ghana to pay this quantum of money.
Recently, Asogli announced plans to undertake phase III expansion of its current plant and the company is considering two options with the first option being an addition of 360MW while the second option will add 508MW.
It also plans to make huge investments in the area of wind, solar and waste-to-energy in line with the Government of Ghana’s agenda to increase renewable energy penetration in the country’s energy mix.
The sector Minister, who described these initiatives as interesting, assured Asogli of the Ministry of Energy’s preparedness to look into the company’s expansion plans and discussed the way forward accordingly.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Nigeria is expected to complete the rehabilitation of its Port Harcourt refinery and begin production in about 18 months, Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has said.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC), last Wednesday, approved a sum of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers State.
The repair, which will be executed by Tecnimont SPA, an Italian company, will be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months.
Mr Kyari who was reacting to controversies around the recent approval for the project said the exercise would include a complete rehabilitation and not turnaround maintenance of the refinery.
He said major components of the refinery would be replaced as the contractor executes the repair in phases.
The NNPC MD said the refinery would begin production of gas after 18 months of repair.
“We are not doing turnaround maintenance. We are doing rehabilitation of the refinery, and it is very different. It means that we are replacing certain major components,” he said.
“We are introducing some items that ordinarily we won’t need to do in turnaround maintenance, and there are major shifts in the status of the plant that we have to do and it is not done during turnaround maintenance.
“During rehabilitation, by the 18th month, part of this plant will begin to produce particularly the gasoline plants. In rehabilitation, we normally don’t shut down the plant completely; we repair a segment of it, and then it starts working, and then, you move to the next segment.
“You continue to scale up and that is why within the four-year period, the contractor would have completely left your premises. What it means in a technical sense is that in 18 months, we will see production coming from that plant. We will follow it plant by plant until we are completely done.”
Mr Kyari said process of rehabilitation started about 10 years ago but was slowed down due to a number of mistakes.
He said the Federal Government resorted to partly fund the project through borrowings in order to ensure compliance with required conditions.
“This process started 10 years ago and a number of mistakes happened, leading to the enormous delay we have seen in this process because there were a lot of interferences in the past but these are gone,” he said.
He said Afreximbank has promised a US$500 million loan in the first instance and an additional US$500 million, making it US$1 billion, and the condition is for the loans to be repaid from the operations and proceeds of this plant.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s largest state power generation company, Volta River Authority (VRA), managers of the Akosombo International School, has reintegrated staff and students of the school, who tested positive for Covid-17 after undergoing successful treatment and tested negative.
In a statement, VRA said it had brought the outbreak of covid-19 in the school under control without recording any fatality.
“Upon the resumption of school for this academic year, AIS recorded a covid-19 case. Following the incident, management of VRA requested mass Covid-19 screening and contact tracing which were immediately carried out by the VRA Health Services Limited and the Authority’s Covid-19 Taskforce.
“All who tested positive were stabilised and kept in isolation for further management and treatment by our health staff, while those who tested negative were advised to continue with strict adherence to all Covid-19 safety protocols.
“We are happy to inform the general public that as at the date of this publication, all staff and students who initially tested positive had tested negative upon repeat tests. All recovered students were counseled and re-integrated into the school,” the Authority said.
“In line with our protocols, the first year students have also reported to school with negative Covid-19 text results,” the statement added.
The VRA re-assured parents and the general public that precautionary measures such as temperature checks, social distancing, hand washing, sanitizing and shift system for students are being fully enforced.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s new Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Hon. Hawa Koomson, has commended Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) for their role in ensuring that there is uninterrupted supply of premix fuel to all landing beaches in the West African nation.
According to the Minister, the steady supply of premix fuel for fisherfolks in the country remains a topmost priority of her ministry.
Hon. Hawa Koomson, thus, assured Ghanaians that her ministry would collaborate with Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and the Premix Secretariat as well as other stakeholders to ensure the steady availability of premix fuel to ensure productivity in the country.
The Minister made these remarks during her familiarisation visit to TOR, the first state-owned enterprise to be visited by the Minister since she assumed office in March 2021.
The visit offered the minster the opportunity to interact and gather useful information on the processing and distribution of the commodity and the strategic role played by TOR.
The Minister toured parts of the refinery including its loading gantry where premix fuel and other products are lifted by clients through BRVs.
The Managing Director of TOR, Mr Francis A.T Boateng expressed his appreciation to the Minister for choosing Tema Oil Refinery as the first SOE to visit, weeks after the Energy Minister had also paid a working visit to the refinery.
“The familiarisation visits by both the Minister of Energy some weeks ago, and now the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, have shown that Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) remains an important national asset that contributes to both energy security and national development.”
Mr Boateng expressed willingness on the part of the refinery to cooperate with the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture to realise the ministry’s goal of ensuring uninterrupted supply of premix fuel in the country.
The Distribution Manager for TOR, Madam Rosina Fiagbe stated that on the average, TOR is able to load about thirty-seven to forty trucks of 13,500 liters of premix fuel daily.
She said the refinery considers increasing the quantities to about 50 trucks whenever there is upsurge in demand.
She explained that allocation of premix fuel is carried out by the Premix Secretariat while TOR works with the allocation to release the product through its loading gantry.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
The African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) has launched a US$1.2 million Innovation Fund to unlock the potential of renewable energy to create new business opportunities.
Businesses and entrepreneurs in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe can apply for funding.
The fund is aimed at strengthening market readiness of emerging innovations, as well as secures financial, technical, and networking support for taking existing proven prototypes to scale.
Solutions that reduce the negative impacts associated with the use of traditional cooking options at the household and institutional levels, build climate change resilience among communities and support productive uses such as water pumping, agro-processing, cooling, and refrigeration services are examples that the Fund seeks to support.
In applying, businesses and entrepreneurs will need to demonstrate how their proposed innovations will transform livelihoods of low-income households through creation of jobs and diversification of livelihoods.
Under the Sustainable Development Goals, the world has set an ambitious target of ensuring universal access to reliable and sustainable energy by the end of the decade. But with half of the African continent without access to electricity, and two-thirds lacking access to clean cooking solutions, additional investment is needed to drive innovation and accelerate the uptake of modern energy.
The Innovation Fund builds on AECF’s Renewable Energy and Adaptation to Climate Technologies (REACT) initiative, which was launched to support the private sector develop and expand its clean energy technologies to Africa’s rural communities. The Fund will invest in technologies that meet market needs as well as accelerating the development of existing solutions to better serve African communities and not technologies in the prototype stage.
Chief Executive Officer of AECF, Victoria Sabula, said: “The Innovation Fund is key to enhancing large scale transformation within local communities. Investing in affordable and accessible renewable energy solutions can create jobs, grow economies, and build more sustainable livelihoods. Through the fund, we hope to unearth new ways that renewable technology – be it domestic, communal, or commercial – can be used to generate income and create jobs,” she said.
The deadline for the applications is 29th April 2021.
He said the Authority invested GHS2 million in procuring the items with the aim of supporting the development of school children in their operational areas.
Human development, he said is paramount to the Authority, hence the decision to undertake the exercise.
Ing. Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa urged the beneficiaries to make good use of the items by studying hard in other to excel academically.
The VRA CEO noted that the outbreak of Covid-19 has taught the world the need to appreciate science and technology, saying VRA had, therefore, decided to use drones to receive some of the items to enable the school children develop interest in science and technology.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
According to him, the current administration believes in the ability of individuals and entities to make profits from their investments, noting that Tullow and others invested in Ghana when no-one thought it was worth doing so.
Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh acknowledged Tullow’s significant contribution to the country’s education sector in particular as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) functions.
“The government believes in honesty and collaboration for a ‘win-win’ situation, and that for the company’s concerns about outstanding issues to be resolved, it was important to adopt the shortest path towards that goal,” he concluded.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
It also plans to make huge investments in the area of wind, solar and waste-to-energy in line with the Government of Ghana’s agenda to increase renewable energy penetration in the country’s energy mix.
The sector Minister, who described these initiatives as interesting, assured Asogli of the Ministry of Energy’s preparedness to look into the company’s expansion plans and discussed the way forward accordingly.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
