WAPCo urged to meet April 30 deadline on gas supply

Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Minister for Energy, has urged West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) to ensure it adheres to the schedule date of resumption of operations of the gas pipeline.

According to him, the ever growing significance of gas supply to the region and the importance, which Ghana government attached to the project, made it imperative on WAPCo to do all it could to meet the target date.

The Minister made the call at a meeting with officials of WAPCo on Tuesday in Accra. The meeting was aimed to brief the Minister on the progress of re-commission works on the West African Gas Pipeline.

Recalling the two instances where the scheduled dates were missed, Mr Buah said the company was already inching towards serious credibility problems, saying “This is an opportunity to restore your reputation”.

He said plans were underway to meet with officials of N-gas of Nigeria to discuss the availability of gas supplies to the country as soon as work on the pipeline was completed.

The Minister said that was necessary in order to avoid a situation where the pipeline would be in place but without the required volume of gas needed to power the country’s plants.

Mr Charles A. Adeniji, Managing Director of WAPCo, said the company had successfully completed integrity testing of the pipeline connectors, adding that the contractors engaged to undertake the re-commissioning works to bring the pipeline into operations, had mobilized to site and removing water from the pipeline.

He assured that the deadline of April 30 would be met.

Source: GNA