Barring any last minute technical hitch and swift address of safety concerns raised by Energy Commission, The aL-hAJJ can confirm that latest Monday the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) will begin flowing gas from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant to the Aboadze Thermal Plant.
Despite concerns by the Energy Commission for officials of GNGC to halt its plans of flowing gas to the thermal plant to ease the load shedding exercise that has presently saddled the country, this paper?s investigations have revealed that by close of day, Friday, managers of the newly-built world class Gas Processing Plant plan to address all the concerns raised by the commission to enable gas supply to commence by Sunday, November 16, 2014.
The Gas Processing Plant, constructed by Chinese firm, SINOPEC, according energy experts will enable the country save millions of dollars the Volta River Authority and other state agencies spend in purchasing light crude oil for power generation.
Although several dates have been announced for the first flow of natural gas from Atuabo of which officials of GNGC pegged the latest date at end of October this year, management sources have confirmed to The aL-hAJJ, all is set for the company to pump gas to the thermal plants latest by Sunday night.
But the Energy Commission has raised red flags, citing safety and other concerns its officials say they have received from their Independent Technical Auditor.
The commission, in a letter to GNGC, noted that the gas company was still doing wielding works and has offloaded several pieces of pipe works and other metal that suggest that construction works is still not complete.
However, an official of GNGC who does not want his name mentioned confided in The aL-hAJJ that ?we have noted all the concerns raised by Energy Commission and our engineers are working around the clock to address them by close of this week Friday?so we hope everything goes on well as planned, and we will start flowing gas to Aboadze before Monday next week.?
A summary document of a detailed schedule pumping of the first wet gas by SINOPEC from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah to the Atuabo plant, which was sighted by this paper, indicates that the GNGC started preparations for the flow of gas last week Sunday.
Sources at GNGC say the concerns raised by the Energy Commission will not disrupt the schedule as engineers working on the project are expected to surmount the issues raised by the Energy Commission.
