Ghana Gas says Sinopec replaces lost equipment for Atuabo gas project
Sinopec Service, the main contractor working on the Atuabo Gas facility, has replaced the LPG fabricated plates and accessories that got lost in transit in September, this year.
A vessel, Xinfu Song, carrying the plates and accessories arrived at the Tema Port on November 20, 2013, while the Ghana Gas Company received them at its gas processing plant on December 4, 2013.
This will enable Ghana Gas to complete LPG tanks A and B, with tank B almost complete except for the upper and lower crowns.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Gas Company, Dr George Sipah-Yankey, confirmed this to the Daily Graphic in Accra over the weekend.
It would be recalled that the consignment, which also included some important accessories for the storage and condensing tank, valued at $2.6 million sank when the Chinese vessel, Senghuang Song, on which it was being transported, was involved in an accident as a result of bad weather.
The incident occurred on August 8, this year, when the vessel transporting the consignment on behalf of the contractors, Sinopec, to the Atuabo site was caught in bad weather off the shores of South Africa on its way to Ghana.
Also in the missing container were some essential tools for the hooking up and installation of vessels to transport gas from the facility.
Other items in a separate container on board the vessel also got damaged as a result.
Luckily, however, Sinopec insured the consignment and notified its insurers, who replaced the lost and damaged equipment.
The inability of Ghana Gas Company to begin commercial delivery of gas from the Atuabo Gas facility in January, 2014, would cost the country about $340 million.
According to Dr Sipah-Yankey, the commercial production of lean gas, LPG and condensates was likely to commence after March, 2014, culminating in a 90-day lost opportunity for fuel substitution for power generation by the Volta River Authority (VRA).
Source: Daily Graphic