Accra, Dec. 12. GNA - The Volta River Authority has said national gas has been released from Nigeria into West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP). It said as at Saturday December 6, the offshore line was successfully filled with natural gas all the way to Takoradi and shut in.

This followed extensive work done by the Nigerian company working on the project (gas pipeline system), VRA said in a statement signed by Mr Kofi Asante Okai, Director Corporate Services of VRA. VRA said the commissioning and the line packing of the WAGP was currently on going and was expected to continue for the rest of December and free-flow of natural gas was later expected to be available for power generation at Takoradi.

It said discussions were currently in progress with N-Gas, the supplier of the gas to the Takoradi plant, to ensure that supply of free-flow natural gas was continued once commissioning was completed. "It must be mentioned that free-flow gas, depending on the pressure, will be available for one or two turbines at Takoradi. This will ensure a reduction in the cost of production, as natural gas is cheaper than light crude oil that has been the source of fuel for the Takoradi plant since its construction 10 years ago." The West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), which started in 2004, was substantially completed in 2007.

The WAGP was expected to make lower cost fuel in Nigeria available for power generation in Ghana.

The statement said gas could not be made available because the original contractor could not complete the compressor stations at Lagos Beach that would allow fully compressed gas to be put through the pipeline.

It said compressing the gas would allow large quantities of natural gas to be transported through the pipeline to Ghana to serve all available thermal plants as well as industrial consumers. "The Government of Ghana, therefore, made arrangements for uncompressed gas to be made available to the plants at Takoradi for use on some of the units."

VRA said due to the high moisture content in the gas, it had so far not been possible to transport any natural gas to Ghana. It said for almost a year now, the WAGP had been filled with nitrogen to prevent the ingress of moisture while awaiting the availability of natural gas of the right specification. "All this while, the Government of Ghana and the Volta River Authority (VRA) never relented in their efforts to ensure quick resolution of the problems and to make the necessary arrangements for the natural gas to Ghana." "With the arrival of free-flow gas in Ghana, a significant milestone in the project has been achieved." The statement said the Government of Ghana and VRA would continue working with all other stakeholders to ensure speedy completion of the project to the point when fully compressed natural gas was made available. 12 Dec. 08