Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas), operators of the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant in the Ellembele District of the Western Region, say they will shut down the facility for routine maintenance works on Friday January 15, 2016.
A statement signed by the Corporate Communications Manager of Ghana Gas, Alfred Ogbamey, said “the planned maintenance, the second since lean gas and associated liquids production began at Atuabo, is expected to last approximately fourteen (14) calendar days.”
The planned shutdown could worsen the power crisis unless the Volta River Authority (VRA) has enough light crude within the period to power its plants at Aboadze and the Ameri Power Plants.
Ghana Gas is supplying gas to the VRA to power its plants despite the VRA’s huge indebtedness to them for the gas supplied over a long period of time.
It recently warned that it could shut down completely if the VRA did not honour its debt obligations since it needed to fix faulty equipment to supply gas effectively.
Notice of mandatory maintenance at Atuabo Gas Processing Plant
This is to advise all stakeholders that the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas) is scheduled to commence a planned, mandatory maintenance at its Atuabo Gas Processing Plant on Friday, January 15, 2016. Atuabo will, therefore, be temporarily shut down during the maintenance period.
The planned maintenance, the second since lean gas and associated liquids production began at Atuabo, is expected to last approximately fourteen (14) calendar days.
The plant has been in operation for more than 8,000 hours since last year.
As previously communicated to the general public, this mandatory outage is required by original equipment manufacturers and vendors for maintenance of certain critical components in the gas processing plant on a periodic basis, as well to facilitate warranty assurance on the installed equipment and the validity of our operating insurance cover.
Ghana Gas is in communication with the Volta River Authority (VRA), the primary downstream lean gas off-taker, and the other product off-takers, as well as the upstream gas supplier, Tullow Ghana Limited, to ensure a smooth implementation and completion of the planned maintenance works.
The Company will update appropriate stakeholders on the progress of work.
ALFRED OGBAMEY
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
ATUABO GAS