Ghana pays Sinopec $188m for work to resume on gas project
The government has, through the Chinese Development Bank (CDB), paid $188 million to Sinopec for continuation of work on the Ghana Gas Infrastructure Development project at Atuabo in the Western Region.
The payment of the tranche by the CDB on behalf of the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) last Wednesday has led to the resumption of work on the project which stalled some two months ago.
The Chief Executive Officer of the GNGC, Dr Sipa Yankey, who confirmed this to the Daily Graphic, said the payment was in respect of invoices Sinopec processed for payment, which Ghana could not initially pay, following challenges with the $3 billion CDB loan facility.
Dr Yankey said the GNGC had processed another disbursement invoice for $120 million which had been forwarded to the CDB through Ghana’s ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, to make up for the total amount it owed the contractors.
That, he said, would make it possible for Sinopec to pay for its expenses and also pay sub-contractors who had abandoned the various project sites for non-payment of works done.
“Presently, two major facilities for processing of natural gas to feed the Aboadze Thermal Plant and a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) facility have been installed following the resumption of work, while the hooking up of pipes was also being carried out,” Dr Yankee said.
He also indicated that the sub-contractor working on the offshore pipelines who abandoned the project would be arriving in the country next week to resume work.
“Although we have lost two months of activity, which could impact negatively on the commissioning schedule, we are working very hard to meet the stipulated deadline of completion,” the CEO said.
So far, a 42 metric ton De-Butaniser, which is a component of the project model and would produce LPG after the commissioning, has been installed.
The de-ethaniser component to circulate the lean (natural) gas would be responsible for the transportation of gas to the Aboadze plant after the separation of other liquids from the gas.
Presently, there are over five trillion standard cubic feet of natural gas deposit offshore and the first phase of the plant has been designed to process 150 million standard cubic feet of gas per stream day.
The second phase, which is expected to come on stream in 2016/17, would be expected to increase production to about 300 million cubic feet per stream day.
Source: Daily Graphic