Ghana to cut gas import from Nigeria

Ghana has announced plans to significantly reduce the quantity of gas it purchases from Nigeria in the next couple of months through increased local gas production. gas tanksPresident of Ghana, Mr. John Mahama, who was responding to questions on the economy at the Global African Investment Summit in London, said the country is working hard to court more private investors to shore up local production of gas to solve the country’s power crisis. He said this will end the country’s over-reliance on the West African gas pipeline which has been inconsistent with supplying gas to the country. He said, “We had a lot of excitement when the gas pipeline was built hoping that the abundance of Nigerian gas will flow through the pipeline to help all the four countries signed onto the pipeline, but the volume has been very disappointing.” He, however, expressed the hope that the country’s current energy crisis will stabilise when works on the Atuabo gas processing plant is completed, adding that the plant should start producing gas for power generation by the end of November. Mahama said the facility, which has the capacity to generate about 140 million standard cubic feet of natural gas a day, is estimated to save the country more than $500 million annually when it is substituted for light crude oil in the generation of power. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/ghana-cut-gas-import-nigeria/#sthash.nIgJIBMV.dpuf