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Minister of Energy, Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah

Nigeria to increase gas supply to Ghana

Nigeria has promised to increase the volume of gas supplied to Ghana under the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) project.

The Group Executive Director for Gas and Power at the Nigeria Petroleum Corporation, Dr David Ige, made the pledge when he addressed an emergency meeting of ministers of Energy in Accra yesterday.

Ghana has, in recent times, complained about the fluctuating nature of gas supply from Nigeria through the WAGP to meet the country’s needs. 

Emergency meeting

Energy ministers and experts from four West African countries held the emergency meeting to review upwards the tariffs on gas supplied to their respective countries under the WAGP project.

The countries are Ghana, Nigeria, Benin and Togo.

The review, which will cover the period 2015 to 2018, is to help the project recover its operational losses.

The WAGP project has run into financial difficulties because of the low tariffs on the gas it supplies to the respective countries.

Nigeria’s promise

Dr Ige, who represented Nigeria’s Minister of Energy, said the Nigerian government was committed to ensuring that the WAGP became more functional.

According to him, the Nigerian government had put in place numerous measures at the national and international levels to ensure that the project was beneficial to the sub-region.

He said one of the reforms was the payment of debt by the Nigerian Central Bank to investors involved in the project.

He said gas supply to the Nigeria national grid would be increased to 200 million cubic feet, saying that would help in the supply to neighbouring countries.

Dr Ige said the challenges which the project faced earlier had been overcome and promised that there would be significant change in the supply from the project.

Addressing the opening session, Ghana’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, said the WAGP project was critical to the energy needs of the countries involved in the project.

He said although Ghana now had its own gas project, it needed the WAGP to supplement its power generation.

The Managing Director of the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), Mr Walter Perez, said the increase in the tariffs on gas from the WAGP would help the company operate more efficiently.

WAGP

The WAGP project was developed for gas which was being flared in Nigeria to be used for power generation in Ghana, Benin and Togo. 

The 687-km pipeline, constructed at a cost of US$974 million, supplies gas to thermal power stations in the three countries.

The project began in 1982 when the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) proposed the development of a natural gas pipeline throughout West Africa.

In 1991, a feasibility report conducted by the World Bank on the project said it was commercially viable.

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