The Volta River Authority is highly indebted to the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC), owing as much as $227.78 million for the supply of lean gas produced from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant, the annual report of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) launched Wednesday June 22, 2016 shows.
GNGC doesn’t know when the debt would be paid.
The plant which started operations in April 2015 has processed a total of 24, 211 millions of standard cubic feet (MMscf) of wet gas into lean gas and other derivatives like LPG and condensates valued at $268.12 million. A larger portion of the gas was sold to VRA, but only 13.5 per cent of the total payment has been received.
According to the PIAC report, only $34.99 million has been received out of a total of $269.24 million during the period under review.
The report indicates that VRA’s indebtedness to the GNGC grew by approximately 120 per cent over a six-month period from $103.61 million as at June 2015 to $227.78 million in December 2015.
“Total interest payable by VRA in respect of its debt accrued from the lean gas supplied by GNGC at the end of the review period was $1.12 million,” it said.
The report notes that, meanwhile; GNGC is in turn indebted to the Ghana Group up to the tune of $79.06 million in respect of raw gas delivered to the Atuabo plant from the Jubilee field.
It is however, not clear how or how soon VRA would be able to pay up.
Meanwhile, in August 2015 Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), asked the Ghana government to account for an amount of $200 million generated from the Atuabo Gas Plant in the first seven months of operation.
He also pointed out that the plant at that time was supplying about 50 per cent of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) needs of the country, adding that the plant can generate around $500 million a year.
The energy expert also asked the government to report on the Annual Budgetary Fund Allocation (ABFA) for the four priority areas of Expenditure and Amortisation of Loans for Oil and Gas Infrastructure; Agriculture Modernisation Roads and Other Infrastructure; Capacity Building (including in Oil and Gas). The total amount for 2014 GH¢899,960,111 but only GH¢549,400,109 was spent, leaving a balance of GH¢666,058,058.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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