Wednesday 17 December 2014

Scheduled commissioning of Atuabo gas plant disrupted


 
The scheduled commissioning of the gas infrastructure project by the Ghana National Gas Company has been disrupted as a result of the sporadic flow of gas upstream.


The GNGC cited two key concerns- absence of enough functioning generating units at the VRA enclave in Aboadze and compressor tripping on the offshore facility, FPSO Kwame Nkrumah- caused by unplanned outages or trips of the FPSO gas export compressor as frustrating the commissioning programme.


Board Chairman, Prof. Kwesi Botchway in a statement issued Wednesday, December 17, 2014, however says discussions are ongoing with VRA and Tullow Oil respectively to address these challenges.


“Indeed, since the commencement of commissioning on November 10, 2014, supply of raw gas from Tullow Oil has been sporadic. Most of the upstream flow curtailment incidents have resulted from unplanned outages or trips of the FPSO gas export compressor. The outage periods have ranged from 30 minutes to as long as 7 hours. These have gravely affected our commissioning schedule.”


Regardless of these hitches, the Atuabo Plant, the statement noted, has so far produced 3,000 tons of LPG, out of which 2,100 tons have been delivered to the market for use. It has also produced over 500 tons of condensate out of which about 300tons has been transported to the market.


The plant is currently supplying the Volta River Authority (VRA) with gas at 50-53 million standard cubic feet per day (50-53MMSCFD), which is generating between 150-200 MW of power at Aboadze.


The statement assured that the current production levels “would increase significantly as we near completion of the commissioning process and as we increase raw gas intake at the Atuabo plant.”




Source: Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Jerry Tsatro Mordy | jerry.mordy@myjoyonline.com


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