Ministry of Energy takes over Osagyefo Barge
The Osagyefo Power Barge was yesterday handed over to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.
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However, officials of Balkan Energy Company of the United States of America (USA) failed to attend the ceremony.
At a short ceremony at Efasu in the Jomoro District of the Western Region, the sector Minister, Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, said a team of engineers would start carrying out a technical audit of the facility to ascertain its true state.
Engineers have given an assurance that there is hope for the operation of the barge, which has most of its upper deck equipment and metals completely destroyed after being left unattended to for more than six years.
However, the Minster hinted that if the audit revealed that Balkan Energy was responsible for the damage caused to the facility, it would be made to account for it.
Mr Buah said it was important that as a country “we reflect on the lapses that caused the country to incur the loss to avoid a recurrence.”
The minister suggested that when certain critical technical decisions were being taken experts should be involved.
He received the barge and said steps would be taken to engage an independent engineering audit to ascertain the state of the barge.
He said government was committed to improving the energy needs of the country and that it would ensure that the barge added the 125MW to the national power pool.
Mr Steve Doku, the Director of Power at the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, said even though from the outside, the barge looked ruined, the inner part of the plant was intact.
Currently, he said, the rusty parts needed to be removed, and the overhead huge crane and other vital equipment on the deck had to be replaced, saying " the underlying factor is that, a lot of fabrications have to be done to restore the facility.”
Attorney-General
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, in a statement before handing over the facility to the sector minister, said the claim put forward by Balkan Energy amounted to $3billion based on tolling fees on the long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) entered into in 2007 between the government of Ghana and Balkan Energy.