It has emerged that, all outstanding debt owed Nigeria’s Gas (N-Gas) by the government of Ghana has been fully paid.
Ghana which had a total debt of US$60 million, as the beginning of this year according to the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has settled the debt.
In a tweet, the President Akufo-Addo revealed that, his government has paid in full all debt Ghana owed Nigeria Gas (N-Gas).
N-Gas, the main supplier of lean gas to Ghana’s Volta River Authority (VRA) through the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo), last year was forced to cut gas to Ghana after giving the country a two-week ultimatum to clear its outstanding debt of over $100 million.
The cut which contributed to the power providers intensifying an ongoing load shedding exercise, saw Ghana losing about 600 megawatts of power from the country’s national electricity grid.
Meanwhile the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo his tweet on Thursday April 13 stated that, his government has paid off the debt, “Keeping my promise, Ghana’s debt to Nigeria Gas, US$60million paid.”
Ghana has a deal with N-Gas to receive a 120 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) of gas daily.
Gas supply from Nigeria averages 20 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, which the Sunon Asogli Power Plant in Tema uses to generate over 100 megawatts of electricity.
The company, which is jointly owned by Shell, Chevron and the NNPC, buys gas from oil companies in Nigeria and transports the gas to its customers in Benin, Togo and Ghana through the $1 billion West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), which is operated by the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo).
The International Project Agreement (IPA) – signed in May 2003 by WAPCo and the governments of Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo, with the secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as witness – provides that N-Gas be allocated a space in the pipeline that could transport up to 200 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
WAPCo is owned by Chevron West African Gas Pipeline Ltd (36.9%); Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (24.9%); Shell Overseas Holdings Limited (17.9%); Takoradi Power Company Limited (16.3%), Societe Togolaise de Gaz (2%) and Societe BenGaz S.A. (2%). – B&FT
