Ghanaians can now heave a sigh of relief as the Chief Director of the Energy and Petroleum Ministry; Thomas Akabza intimated that the Energy and Petroleum Minister’s visit to Nigeria has “not been fruitless”.
The Minister, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, left for Nigeria on Monday to engage in talks with suppliers about recent gas challenges in the country and was expected to be back by the end of Tuesday.
He and the CEO of the Volta River Authority, Kirk Koffie, are believed to have held discussions with the suppliers in a bid to boost supply.
However, when pressed for specifics, Mr. Akabza remained adamant, insisting, “I will let the minister share that with Ghanaians.”
The ongoing rationing of power across the country is blamed partly on a sharp decline in the volumes of gas received from Nigeria through the West Africa Gas Pipeline.
According to the VRA — the main recipient of the gas, supply has dropped to an all-time low of 30 million standard cubic feet per day, as against a contractual volume of around 120 million standard cubic feet per day.
Supply had ranged between 60 million and 90 million standard cubic feet per day before the sharp drop.
“The problem has been that, in Nigeria, there are a number of challenges. Mostly, the pipelines are vandalised; and because these pipelines feed into the main pipeline, when they are vandalised it affects supply. The other thing is that there is also growing competition in Nigeria for gas”, Akabza explained.
The country is currently missing close to 300 megawatts due to the gas supply deficit as well as expansion works at the Takoradi T2 thermal plant which is being expanded.