The commissioning process of the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant in the Western region is scheduled to be completed by the end of January, 2015, the Ghana Gas Company has said.

The process was stalled in December last year due to technical difficulties

The Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) – operator of the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant – at the time said it was working with state power producer, Volta River Authority (VRA) and Tullow Oil – to scale certain hurdles encountered in the ongoing commissioning process – a situation which GNGC admitted affected the commissioning schedule.

The VRA, according to a statement issued Wednesday December 17, 2014 signed by GNGC Board Chairman Prof Kwesi Botchwey, nonetheless benefitted from substantial flow of gas for power production from the Atuabo plant.

The statement said: “The Board of the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas) can confirm that we are currently supplying the Volta River Authority (VRA) with gas at 50-53 million standard cubic feet per day (50-53MMSCFD), which is generating between 150-200 MW of power at Aboadze.

“Aboadze is, therefore, currently relying solely on gas from Atuabo to power the various plants in the enclave, and we are looking to ramp up flow from the current average of 50MMSCFD to the design flow of 150MMSCFD by end of this month (December 2014),” the statement said.

At the time, the GNGC said its permits from the Energy Commission and Petroleum Commission allowed the company to flow up to 150MMSCFD.

However, the statement noted, a few technical hurdles needed to be overcome before that can happen.

“To reach that flow level, the VRA is expected to confirm its readiness to take the higher flows. The absence of enough functioning generating units at the VRA enclave in Aboadze and compressor trippings on the offshore facility, FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, are two key issues Ghana Gas has been concerned about,” the statement mentioned.

“We are accordingly in discussions with VRA and Tullow Oil respectively to address these challenges,” GNGC assured Ghanaians, adding: “Indeed, since the commencement of commissioning on November 10, 2014, supply of raw gas from Tullow Oil has been sporadic. Most of the upstream flow curtailment incidents have resulted from unplanned outages or trips of the FPSO gas export compressor.

“The outage periods have ranged from 30 minutes to as long as 7 hours. These have gravely affected our commissioning schedule,” GNGC conceded.

It said: “We have, thus far, also produced from the Atuabo Plant, 3,000 tons of LPG, out of which 2,100 tons have been delivered to the market for use. The plant has also produced over 500 tons of condensate out of which about 300tons has been transported to the market. These levels would increase significantly as we near completion of the commissioning process and as we increase raw gas intake at the Atuabo plant.”

It, nonetheless noted that: “The Board is generally pleased with the overall commissioning processes and looks forward to a successful completion and commencement of full operations.”

Meanwhile a separate statement issued Monday January 19, 2015 by Prof Botchwey said the issues are being addressed

“Our engineers have met with Tullow’s engineers to explore ways of averting unwarranted occurrences and we are pleased with the outcome of discussions and resultant actions. All things being equal, we now expect that the commissioning process will be significantly concluded by the end of January 2015,” the statement noted.

Also, according to the statement, the Ghana National Gas Company “will supply VRA lean gas at the optimal 120 million standard cubic feet per day(120MMSCFD)” as soon as the VRA completes the requisite works at its Aboadze Thermal Plant complex.

It further revealed that the Atuabo Processing Plant is operating satisfactorily to supply the VRA with lean gas for power production.

“The GPP is operating satisfactorily to supply the Volta River Authority (VRA) with lean gas for power production, and to produce Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as well as other condensates for the downstream market.”