Minister for Petroleum, Emmanuel Amarh-Kofi Buah, has said government had projected that in the next 10 years, 80% of the power plants in the country would be thermal with the cheapest source of fuel being gas.

Mr. Buah, speaking during a tour of the Atuabo Gas processing plant in the Jomoro district in the Western region, said government was doing everything possible to ensure that the country get supply of its needed gas and that plans are far advanced to ensure that the country becomes independent in its energy needs.

He said that the ENI and TEN projects when completed would add some 60mmscl of gas to the existing120mmscf being supplied by the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant.

Mr Buah disclosed that a new Gas Receiving Plant was currently under construction at Sanzule in the Western region to receive the estimated 180 million standard cubic feet of gas from the ENI Project.

He said measures were being put in place to increase the present 150 million standard cubic feet per-day processing capacity of the gas at Atuabo to position the plant to handle the additional gas.

“All emergency roads and bridges currently being constructed in the Jomoro district to help facilitate the smooth evacuation of LPG from the Gas Plant, had been completed, it would allow the evacuated 40 tracks of gas a day from the plant.”

He explained that before constructing the gas plant at Atuabo, the govenment needed to address issues of pipelines security and how the gas could be transported.

“We needed to engage all the six districts and empower them, but it became clear that if the lean gas that would fuel the power plants and generate electricity is going to work, LPG and other by-products must be evacuated.

“We have set up a gas task force that coordinates these activities to make sure we can undertake the road project and also construct a bridge to ease the movement of trucks. The whole idea is to make sure that we can get a very good road to evacuate the LPG because without its evacuation, the plant will have to be shut down,” Mr Buah said.

“Indeed, we want the area to be a gas enclave; because next to the gas plant is the ENI plant, which will be constructed shortly. That project when completed will be connected to the Ghana Gas plant. I think it is a very transforming project,” he said.

The projects being funded by the GGC, with support from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) he said, was crucial for evacuating gas to the Volta River Authority.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) processed by the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant is about 70% of the nation’s demand.

Commenting on the GNPC-Ghana Gas merger, Mr Buah said the process leading to a takeover was almost complete and likely to be finalized by the end of the year.

“One of the processes is to make sure that the CEO of GNPC is a board member of Ghana Gas. There are some legal processes that need to be done. They are left with paperwork. Basically the two companies are working together with this in mind: that they are one company,” he said.