The Volta River Authority (VRA) and four companies -- outside the NGas consortium -- based in Nigeria are close to signing a gas sales agreement for the supply of gas via the West African Gas Pipeline to power its thermal plants.

The four companies are: ND Western, which bought Shell’s asset in Nigeria Gas; Network Oil; Constant Capital; and Sahara Oil.

The authority has also agreed a long-term deal with Gasol LNG Import Limited for supply of gas to the largest power generator for electricity generation. Gasol is expected to receive LNG from Nigeria onto its LNG facility sited in Benin for onward supply to Ghana.

The conditional gas supply agreement the VRA has signed will require Gasol to supply 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, providing an alternative gas supply source for the Authority.

“We have already signed the memorandum of understanding with them, and we are close to signing the gas sales agreement with the companies,” Mr. Samuel Fletcher, VRA’s Head of Corporate Communications, told the B&FT.

NGas, made up of Chevron, Shell and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has a gas supplier agreement with Ghana to supply 120 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

However, gas supply via the West African Gas Pipeline has seldom met the contractual volume. Supply over the past week has been hovering around 50 million standard cubic feet down -- from around 80 million six months ago.

The VRA estimates that the country requires about 300million standard cubic feet of gas per day to power all installed thermal plants for power generation.

Gas supply from the Jubilee Field, which is expected by close of the year, is estimated at 120-150 million standard cubic feet per day while, at peak, gas supply from NGas is about 180 million standard cubic feet. This leaves a deficit in gas supply of about 100million standard cubic feet.

Securing supply from five more producers is seen as a major boost, considering the rising electricity demand.