The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has described the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sales agreement reached between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and GAZPROM as “positive” and “one that is going to play a very important role in the economic life of Ghana.”

According to him, the decision taken by GAZPROM, the world’s largest natural gas company, to establish a base in Ghana is testament to the efforts his government has put in place over the last 8 months to “try to put a better framework in place to encourage private sector participation in the growth of the economy.”

After putting in place measures to improve the country’s fiscal and monetary policy, as well as improve the economic and business climate, the President stated that “we are now focusing on the very key area of power and energy.

He stressed that “if we are going to succeed in pushing the industrial development of our country rapidly, the supply of gas to our country is now a matter of very great importance for us.”

President Akufo-Addo made this known on Friday, 15th September, 2017, when a delegation from GAZPROM called on him, at the presidency, after the signing of the Gas Sales Agreement (GSA) between GNPC and GAZPROM.

The GSA is expected to add up to 1,000 MW to Ghana’s power supply, saving the country over a billion dollars, and will see the construction of a regasification terminal at Tema.

The agreement replaces two signed competing contracts for the same Tema LNG project by the previous John Mahama government, which were both considered over-priced and over-sized for Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo assured the team from GAZPROM that “all of us are going to do whatever we need to do to make sure that this relationship that we have now begun to build becomes a strong positive and successful one.”

On behalf of GAZPROM, Pavel Oderov, Head International business at GAZPROM, described the signing of the agreement as “a very big day for us at GAZPROM.

Indeed, we have signed today the second biggest LNG supply contract in our portfolio.”

“With GAZPROM producing 11% of the world’s gas, we are more than honoured to become a supplier of LNG to Ghana. We are absolutely sure that we will become a reliable partner for the energy industry in Ghana,” he added.