19 March 2014, Accra – Ghana has an option to invoke provisions in the contract agreement with the West African Gas Pipeline Authority for its inability to live up to contractual terms to deliver gas to Ghana.
But the country stands at a disadvantaged position, and is possibly gone begging Nigeria for the Gas, considering the urgent need for the commodity.
Ghana’s Minister of Energy, Emmanuel Kofi Buah and the Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority, ING Kirk Kofie, are currently in Nigeria to broker terms for the timely release of the agreed gas from that country.
But a former Chief Executive Officer of VRA, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, who signed the contract agreements with the suppliers, is pointing at a breach of contract, for which authorities of Ghana must demand answers.
“VRA and the government of Ghana should use whatever muscle it can muster to ensure that N-Gas delivered that which it had signed on to and delivers it consistently,” Dr. Wereko-Brobbey told Joy FM.
Industry experts who spoke to The Chronicle on the issue said Ghana cannot afford to flex its muscles in the circumstance. “We do have a contract alright but this is a commodity we need, without gas from Nigeria our situation will be worse than this.
“The truth is that if we threaten Nigeria with a suit they would stop giving us the gas. They need it themselves and they squeeze to give us, especially as we don’t have our own gas. Although we can invoke terms of the contract, I don’t think it is necessary,” an industry person told The Chronicle
The West African Gas Pipeline Company has, for some time now, limited its supply to Ghana to between 30 and 70 million cubic feet, which is way below the contractual volume of 120 million standard cubic feet required to supply to the country.
The Corporate Communications Manager for the Volta River Authority, Mr. Samuel Fletcher confirmed to The Chronicle that per the agreement with Nigeria, “we are supposed to receive 12O million standard cubic feet of gas and what we receive is less than that.”
Ghana has, on several occasions, been thrown into a quagmire of energy supply, mainly due to the inability of the West African Gas Pipeline Authority to deliver gas for powering the Asogli and VRA plants.
– The Chronicle