The Ghana Gas Company has rejected claims by the Power Ministry suggesting, it is the cause of the current load shedding the country is experiencing.
According to the Ghana Gas, it shut down its facility at Atuabo on the insistence of the Volta River Authority (VRA) to allow the African Middle East Investment (AMERI) Power Plant, to be connected to the supply of gas from Ghana Gas.
[contextly_sidebar id=”JU4u88AD07skg2IFbhSrapDVdoZTZdnx”]The Power Ministry in a statement blamed the shutting down of the Ghana Gas plant as the main contributor to the load shedding.
The Ministry assured that both the Ghana Gas and AMERI are working round the clock to complete the connection of the gas line and the situation will normalize soon.
But a counter statement signed by Corporate Communications Manager at Ghana Gas, Alfred Ogbamey argued that the assertion by the Power Ministry “is incorrect.”
Alfred Ogbamey in a separate interview on Eyewitness News said the Power Ministry’s statement suggests that “we [Ghana Gas] are the cause of the problem, but we are not.”
Meanwhile the statement said Ghana Gas should not be blamed because before shutting down their facility they received assurances from the VRA that adequate arrangement for light crude oil to power the Aboadze Plant had been made to avoid any shortfall in energy generation.
“Ghana Gas, therefore, find the attempt by the Ministry of Power to mislead the public on this matter disingenuous and unhelpful,” the statement added.
Ghana Gas explained that on 12th November 2015, they “received a written request from the Volta River Authority, an agency under the Ministry of Power, to shut down their processing and supply of lean gas to enable it (VRA) to connect the AMERI Plant to its ‘existing gas pipeline in the week of November 23-27,2015.”
“Consequently, Ghana Gas honoured the request and shut down Atuabo yesterday, 23rd November, 2015 to enable the VRA and the sector Ministry to tie the AMERI Plant onto the VRA facilities.”
It added that “for the records, Ghana Gas does not have any challenge, whatsoever, with the Atuabo Gas Processing plant. The plant has been operational since Ghana’s first indigenous natural gas made its way from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, through the 60-kilometre journey, to safely to land.”
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana