Oscarline Onwuemenyi
07 October 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – In what looks like a reversal of roles, the Ghanaian authorities indicated that the country has started supplying petroleum products to oil-rich Nigeria, as well as other neighbouring West African countries.
Ghanaian Minister for Petroleum, Mr.Kofi Armah Buah, believes the country has been ushered into a new gas era that will guarantee energy security for the next two decades.
According to the ministry’s press release obtained by our correspondent, Buah said this while addressing the media on the projects and programmes that his ministry is currently working on.
He revealed that the ministry had begun work on the development of a new gas policy and gas law.
Minister outlines new gas era
Buah noted that the policy and law, once instated, will provide a transparent regulatory framework for the gas industry, as well as address infrastructure requirement, funding and institutional mandates for gas sector agencies.
He added that the new policy will also provide a revised gas pricing policy reflecting the developmental priorities of the country.
Buah further noted that since the passage of legislative instrument L.I.2004 on Local Content and Local Participation Regulations, the oil and gas industry had seen an increase in capital investment, local sourcing and sub-contracting. This has resulted in about 80% of the total workforce in the oil and gas industry being Ghanaians.
On capacity building, the petroleum minister highlighted that over the past five years, government, under the Oil and Gas Capacity Building Project (OGCBP), has increased the capacity of institutions managing oil and gas, and supported institutions that trained the Ghanaian workforce to operate in the petroleum sector.
He further explained that as part of the OGCBP, laboratory equipment had been supplied to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi and three technical institutions, namely the Regional Maritime University (RMU), Takoradi Technical Institute (TTI) and the Kikam Technical Institute (KTI).
He disclosed that the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) had begun supplying petroleum products to the land-locked countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali from the Bolgatanga depot, and by sea to Benin and Nigeria, with plans to extend the exports to Liberia in the coming months.
Touching on the Ghana gas infrastructure project, Buah said the gas processing plant, with a capacity of 150 mega metre standard cubic feet per day, is currently supplying only about 80 mega metre standard cubic feet of gas for power generation.
He added that the project is producing about 500 metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) per day, the equivalent of 50% of national demand.
He, however noted, that the development of an appropriate infrastructure for a cost-effective and sustained gas delivery to consumers has become a challenge affecting the gas sector.
