Nigeria reduces gas supply to Ghana by 50% over $40.3million debt

There are indications that Nigeria Gas (N-Gas) may have reduced the supply of gas to the Ghana thermal power production by 50 percent over a total of $40.3 million debt.

Nigeria had since been supplying Ghana with about 60 million cubic feet of gas per day as against its contractual 120 million standard cubic feet of gas daily.

The West Africa Gas Pipeline Company Limited, WAPCo had agreed the supply of 120 million standard cubic feet of gas daily to Ghana after Nigeria entered a contractual agreement with Ghana under the country's agency, Ecofin in 2011 after the commissioning of the gas plant in Nigeria.

A report from Ghana’s Ecofin posited that Nigeria had been sending about 60 million cubic feet of gas per day to Ghana since the beginning of 2018.

In 2017, the Managing Director, WAPCo, Walter Perez spoke about the accrued debt owed by Ghana over the supply of gas.

“We are delivering gas now because we put arrangement in place for Ghana to prepay for the deliveries that they receive, and so that is working. We have every expectation that this will continue to work.

“There is a new government in Ghana, and so we are working with that government to understand what the situation is as we develop plans to retire the debt that they have accumulated,” Perez said.

Volta River Authority speaks on drop in gas supply

The Board Chairman, Volta River Authority, VRA, Kweku Awotwi, noted that the contractual volume was 123 million cubic feet of gas per day and that it should help generate electricity in Ghanaian thermal power plants.

The boss at the leading electricity producer in Ghana added that since the day the agreement was signed, Nigeria had never been able to send 100 million cubic feet a day.

Meanwhile, Awotwi revealed that the volumes supplied were now prepaid by the Volta River Authority.

Pipeline vandalization by militants affected supply in 2017

In 2017, WAPCo had announced the drop in supply of gas to Ghana as a result of the activities of the Niger Delta militants.

The $1bn gas pipeline, operated by the West Africa Pipeline Company Limited, was affected as a result of the impact of militant attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta as gas flowing into it.

Ghana gets about 25 per cent of its power supply through gas from Nigeria, which flows through the pipeline via Benin and Togo.