Ghana to rehabilitate Takoradi Harbour at $700m for oil services

The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) will be spending $700 million to rehabilitate the Takoradi Harbour, Ghana’s second sea port to make it ready for the country’s emerging oil industry, ghanabusinessnews.com has learnt.

According to the information which did not indicate the source of the money, the acting Director-General of the GPHA, Mr. Nestor P. Galley was reported to have said the Takoradi Harbour upgrading project will include the reclamation and redevelopment of an old log pond into an oil services facility  to support the country’s offshore oil production. He added that the upgrading is to make the Takoradi Harbour the main port in West Africa.

Efforts by ghanabusinessbusinessnews.com to reach the acting Director-General were unsuccessful as calls we put through to all the phone numbers provided on the Authority’s website were never answered. Attempts to reach the PRO as well were not responded to as he never picked his cell phone.

The information also indicated that the rehabilitation and upgrade will include office accommodation, oil storage tanks for bunkering and storage facilities for oil production materials.

New roads will be paved and railroads will be constructed.

Meanwhile, Mr. Galley has called on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Roads and Transport to help pass bills that will help to achieve the set objectives of the Authority, the Chronicle newspaper has reported.

According to the report, he told the Committee that the GPHA was confronted with several problems and asked that certain amendments and new laws should be put in place to ensure that Ghanaian ports are able to attain international standards to attract more patronage.

He also disclosed that the GPHA had lined up a number of programmes aimed at improving upon the standard of the country’s ports, saying that until such legislative instruments were put in place, attaining them would be difficult.

According to the Chronicle report Mr. Galley mentioned a $550 million development programme which includes building a new terminal to bring the Tema Harbour to international standards.

Briefing the MPs, the acting DG explained that as part of the long term development programme for the Tema port, a new container terminal, estimated to cost about $550 million to raise the Tema port to the standard required will be built.

On the Takoradi Harbour, he said because it was the nearest commercial port in Ghana to the country’s newly-discovered oil fields, there was the need to provide certain facilities that would make the port serviceable to the offshore oil production, but did not mention the $700 million upgrading plan.

However, he said, “Deep draft berthing facilities for vessels bringing plant and equipment for the oil field, office accommodation for the oil companies, open and covered storage facilities for the production materials and pipes, free zone area for production materials, as some of the facilities the GPHA was planning to provide at Takoradi.”

He also mentioned that an area for pipe welding, supply of fresh water, bunkering facilities for supply vessels, repair facilities for offshore oil rigs, repair facilities for supply vessels, berthing (space) for the supply vessels, cranes for handling of plant and materials, and trained workforce for stevedoring of plant and machinery from vessels will be provided.

The Chronicle report however, said he gave the estimated cost of the work at Takoradi at $50 million, adding it would involve dredging of the area to 7.0m, land reclamation, paving works (about 25 ha), relocation of the cocoa sheds outside the port, and construction of about 500m quay walls, and a 650m oil berth with 10m draft.

Ghana is expected to start commercial production of oil in June 2010, and the country could be earning about $1 billion annually from oil.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi