MPs fight over cost of Atuabo Gas project

There was confusion in parliament today, Wednesday May 20 over the actual cost of the Atuabo Gas project.

While Petroleum minister Emmanuel Kofi Boah maintained that the project cost the nation 1 billion US dollars, a member of the House Mustapha Ussif revealed a document that indicated that the facility cost the country as much as 1.5 billion dollars, Starr News' Kobby Mensah Gomez reported.

According to the MP for Yagaba-Kobore, the alleged figure was the basis for the recent increase in electricity tariff by the Public Utility and Regulatory Commission (PURC).

The Gas Infrastructure Project, which is the largest project of the NDC government has embarked on in the past five years, involves receiving gas from the oil and gas fields in the Tano (Western) Basin and processing it into lean gas, propane, butane and condensate.

The overall goal of the project is to ensure that natural gas, associated gas and NGLs produced in Ghana are effectively and efficiently processed into clean fuels and feedstock for domestic, and export market; promote the development of petrochemical industries; substantially reduce and/or eliminate flaring of gas; and develop Western Region of Ghana as a new economic growth pole for the country in the long term.