Government Meets Nigerian Counterpart To Avert Cut in Gas Supply

The Nigerian threat is a sign of budgetary stress and the strain of energy sector reform in Ghana, experts said.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) owes WAPco 103 million dollars with the balance of 78 million dollars being owed to N-Gas and the other parties in the gas supply chain.

The Federal Government has, therefore made a decision to cut gas supply to the country’s power plants.

Wireku-Brobbey told a Ghanaian news medium that contrary to expectation, the constant power supply in the country was not dependent on the incoming power barges from Turkey.

Mahama has vowed to end the power cuts by the start of next year and Donkor has said he would resign if the problem has not been fixed by then. Ghana already suffers power shortages and Nigerian gas meets about 25 percent of its needs.

The announcement, made by the West African Pipeline Company (WAPCo) said on Wednesday said the unpaid debts totaled $181 million.

“One good thing is that for now Ghana does not rely exclusively on West African Gas Pipeline Company for gas…”

He said that while Nigeria was supposed to send 123 million cubic feet of gas to Ghana, it was only able to supply around 49 cubic feet, pointing out that quantity is “inadequate to enable us to power our generating plants”.

Bawa called for an increase in the sanctions to be meted out to Nigeria for breaching the contractual agreement, noting that only this will serve to deter Nigeria from continually breaching the terms of the contract.

According to him the VRA must pay the debt in full while WAPco awaits for further direction from N-Gas.

Nigeria’s N-Gas on Wednesday threatened to curtail its gas supplies to Ghana’s main power generation company later this week.

The Managing Director said WAPCo is certain that those in positions of authority in the country are fully aware of the information and hope that they are taking appropriate action to prevent the curtailment, “otherwise WAPCo is contractually obligated to take deliveries to VRA as 12am Friday October 16 2015”.