WAPCO Highlights Major Feats In Fulfilment Of Being Reliable Partner In Meeting Energy Needs In Ghana, Togo And Benin

The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), owner and operator of the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), has highlighted three major achievements attained in 2020 that has resulted in improved reliability of the gas supply through the pipeline and brought great benefits to customers especially in Ghana.

These events have placed WAPCo in an excellent position to fulfill the company’s mission to transport natural gas from producers in Nigeria and Ghana to consumers in Benin, Togo, and Ghana in a safe and reliable manner.

Completion of Takoradi to Tema Interconnection Project added Ghana gas supply to the network of gas sources.

In collaboration with the government of Ghana and other partners, the Takoradi to Tema Interconnection Project (TTIP) was successfully completed in July 2020.

Following the completion of TTIP, WAPCo averaged in the second half of 2020 over 83,000 MMBtu/day of natural gas transportation from the Western Region of Ghana to the Tema enclave to feed power plants to generate power.

With the successful completion of the interconnection project, WAPCo now has reverse flow capability and transports gas from the Western Region of Ghana, from Ghanaian sources while maintaining its original transportation of gas from sources in Nigeria, thereby increasing the volume available for its gas off takers.

As part of the interconnection project, WAPCo’s Tema Regulating and Metering Station (R&MS) expanded its delivery capacity in 2020 to 235 MMscfd from a previous capacity of 140MMscfd.

In addition, WAPCo’s Takoradi R&MS had a new process area added in 2019 with 225 MMscfd gas receipt capacity.

In January 2021, WAPCo’s Tema R&MS set a new monthly average gas delivery record of over 159 MMscfd and a new record one day peak of over 176 MMscfd with gas supplies from both Ghana and Nigeria.

Successful inspection of offshore section of WAGP

WAPCo successfully completed cleaning and inspecting its 569 km offshore pipeline stretching from Nigeria to Takoradi in Ghana.

This periodic internal inspection of the pipeline, a regulatory requirement and in compliance with WAPCo’s Pipeline Integrity Management System, provides critical information to verify the integrity of our system for continuing safe and reliable service.

A collaborative effort of key stakeholders across Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Benin allowed this effort to be completed safely and ahead of schedule.

Significant improvement in reliable gas supply from Nigeria to the WAGP

WAPCo’s key business partner, the Nigerian Gas Company Limited (NGC), accomplished a great success, which has boosted WAPCo’s reliability efforts.

Through a number of efforts, NGC was able to mitigate issues on their Escravos to Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) allowing them to lift on 1st November 2020 the prolonged force majeure on the ELPS, which had been affecting gas supply to the WAGP from the east.

Due to the lifting of the force majeure, WAGP is in a better position to transport record volumes of gas to customers.

With the improvement in gas supply from Nigeria, the completion of TTIP in Ghana and the growing demand for use of gas in power supply in Ghana, Togo and Benin, the WAGP was able to set a new record on monthly average gas deliveries to customers across the pipeline of over 178 MMscfd in January 2021.

Achieved eight million workforce hours without a recordable incident

WAPCo is also pleased to announce that in keeping with its previous safety records, all these laudable accomplishments were achieved without a recordable incident.

WAPCo’s continued focus on Operational Excellence and a strong safety culture allowed it to achieve zero recordable incidents for the past 6 years and 8 million workforce hours without a recordable incident, helping to protect our workforce and the communities we operate in.

WAPCo is engaged in continuous improvement to ensure reliability and safe operations and is embarking on a number of reliability, efficiency and improvement programs to further position the WAGP to remain relevant to the needs of its customers.

WAGP Background

The WAGP was developed to contribute to the accelerated economic growth of the West African sub-region and currently provides vital infrastructure linking four cities, in Togo (Lome), Benin (Cotonou) and Ghana (Tema & Takoradi), to natural gas supply sources that provide natural gas for the needed power generation required to complement other energy generation sources.

This year, 2021, marks ten years’ of WAPCo commencing commercial operations.

While it has not been without challenges, these were to be expected of a project as complex as the WAGP.

WAPCo has been flexible over these 10 years and together with its shareholders have adapted the pipeline to the growing and changing needs of its stakeholder countries.

With a decade of commercial operations and a strong start in 2021, WAPCo is in a much-improved position to deliver needed energy supplies to customers into the next decade thanks to the dedication of the OneWAPCo workforce and the support of key stakeholders on the WAGP project.