Atuabo Gas to create 5,000 jobs – Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that the gas processing plant at Atuabo in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region will create over 5,000 jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in the Nzema area and Ghana as a whole.

He noted that the project would also help the country save about $500 million used annually to make light crude purchases.

President Mahama also indicated that Atuabo Ghana Gas Processing Plant would help reduce the pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserve and ensure micro-economic stability.

“The gas project has brought great change in the physical and industrial landscape. We have invested our resources well and this is more than good investment,” the President said.

The President made the disclosure at the full commissioning of the Atuabo Ghana Gas Processing Plant.

The plant, which began in April 2012, was constructed at the cost of $1 billion with a loan from China Development Bank.

The plant, which was completed in August, 2014, is expected to ease the power crisis in the country by processing raw gas into Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for the country’s major thermal plants.

He mentioned that Atuabo Ghana Gas Processing Plant would be a game-changer and help Ghana to be a power exporter in the sub-region.

There are challenges with debt management financing which is threatening Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Ghana National Gas Company, he disclosed.

“I have set up a high-level team to restructure the debt of the entire sector and re-arrange its finances,” he added.

He stated that “this may involve the setting up of energy fund or introduction of energy levy or adjustment in the tariffs of the sector to create the buoyant most competitive power hub in West Africa “.

He commended the Jubilee Partners operating in the Jubilee Field in the Western Region for naming the country’s second Floating Production, Storage Offloading Unit (FPSO) after the late President Ata Mills, adding, “I hope the next one would be called FPSO John Agyekum Kufuor.”

He assured the people of Atuabo that the Free Port project would soon take off together with other industries.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Gas, Dr Sipa Yankey stated that with the completion of the project, Ghana had achieved what was thought to be unachievable. “We have successfully completed Phase One of the Western Corridor Gas Infrastructural Development project by constructing a three-tier project that includes a 12-inch diameter 58-kilometre pipeline from offshore to the Processing Plant,” He pointed out that the gas plant would lead the industrialization drive by delivering lean gas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas and condensate for industrial use, among others.