Scheduled gas supply to VRA, FPSO disrupted

Dr. Kwesi Botchwey is Ghana Gas Board Chairman

The commissioning schedule of the gas infrastructure project by the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) has been interrupted.

This follows some challenges the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah vessel are experiencing.

The challenges follow the absence of enough functioning generating units at the VRA enclave in Aboadze and Compressor trippings on the FPSO.

Citi News has however learnt that there are discussions among operators of the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah which is operated by Tullow, the VRA, and the GNGC over the matter.

Ghana Gas is currently supplying the 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.

Consequently, Aboadze is currently relying solely on gas from Atuabo to power the various plants in the enclave, and are looking to ramp up flow from the current average of 50MMSCFD to the design flow of 150MMSCFD by end of December 2014.

According to Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, Ghana Gas’ permit from the Energy Commission and Petroleum Commissions allow the company to flow up to 150MMSCFD but it can only reach that flow level if the VRA confirms its readiness to take the higher flows.

Dr. Botchwey admitted that since the commencement of commissioning on November 10, 2014, the “supply of raw gas from Tullow Oil has been sporadic.”

He explained that “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.”

So far, Ghana Gas has “produced from the Atuabo Plant, 3,000 tons of LPG, out of which 2,100 tons have been delivered to the market for use.”

“The plant has also produced over 500 tons of condensate out of which about 300tons has been transported to the market. These levels would increase significantly as we near completion of the commissioning process and has we increase raw gas intake at the Atuabo Plant,” he added.

Dr. Botchwey however indicated that despite the setbacks, the board of Ghana Gas “is generally pleased with the overall commissioning processes and looks forward to a successful completion and commencement of full operations.”

By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana