Ghana Authorities Seek To Boost Western Region
Officials of state-owned Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas), and the ports and harbours authority (GPHA) have met chiefs from the country's western region to discuss how local content can be boosted in gas sector projects and developments. The meeting took place in Sekondi, southwest Ghana.
As much of the country's oil and gas upstream activity is in the west, the rationale is that it should receive some of the additional gas-fueled power plants and other projects related to the petroleum sector.
Ghana Gas CEO Dr Ben Asante, appointed this February, said his company has pledged to help job creation at gas-fired power projects: “It has become imperative to collaborate with the traditional authorities to chart a common path to ensure that people along the oil and gas enclave were direct beneficiaries of the project,” he said, according to a report by local online publisher Ghana Business News July 24.
Asante said that gas supplies via Ghana Gas were supplied to more than 600MW in the region and that the company next year would aim to boost its power generation market to 2,000MW of capacity, which he said would generate "thousands of jobs." Many power plants in the region though are owned and operated by independent power producers such as the UK state-owned Globeleq and Abu Dhabi state utility Taqa, rather than Ghana state-owned.
Ghana Gas said last year it is building a new 290km pipeline from Aboadze to a new power plant at Tema; the pipe project will be launched in 2018. Tema is also the location of one delayed, and one planned, LNG import facility -- the latter, involving Hoegh and Quantum Power, to enter service 2018.
Despite best efforts from Tullow-operated projects offshore Ghana, gas supplies are not currently enough to meet the country's pent-up demand, with expectations pinned on extra volumes once the Eni-led OCTP development - which started producing oil this year - begins piping gas ashore in 2018.
GNPC's head of sustainability Dr. Kwame Amoah Baah-Nuako also said his corporation would invest more in education, training and scholarships. One of his colleagues said scholarships would be awarded to 200 young people each year to study at the country’s universities, focused on engineering and technical courses relevant to Ghana's oil and gas industry.
Olivier de Souza