President John Mahama has said the coming on stream of the Atuabo gas project will be a “game changer” in Ghana’s development agenda.

The president who toured the plant site at Atuabo in the Western region on Tuesday, said the project will help “macroeconomic stability in terms of reducing the pressure on our foreign exchange reserves. It would save us almost half a billion dollars a year in light crude purchases, and another billion dollars in foreign exchange savings for the purchase of light crude oil, and that is because the VRA will be able to purchase the gas in Cedis."

The project which is believed to be 99.87% will be producing four different core products. This includes 107 million standard cubic feet of lean gas per day, 500 tonnes of LPG a day, 80 tonnes of pentane and 45 tons of condensates per day.

According to Mr Mahama, the gas project will facilitate his vision of an increased generation capacity of 5000 MW of power and positioning Ghana as a self-sufficient energy producer and net exporter to other countries.

“The important thing about this gas is that it allows us to have energy security in terms of putting in more thermal production, and it fits our programme of turning Ghana into the energy hub of West Africa.

"All the companies that we have signed Memorandum of Understandings with for installation of IPP thermal plants will feel secure to go ahead because they know that by the time they finish their thermal projects, gas will be available to power those projects” he stated.