By Mohammed Suleman
Ghanaians will no longer experience the inconveniences of queuing at Gas feeling station due to shortages, as the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) readies itself to take care of 70 per cent of the country’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) needs.
The increasing demand and consumption of LPG by households, Industry and commercial vehicles has been identified as the major cause of the frequent shortage of the commodity on the market.
To prevent these sporadic shortages, GNGC says: ?We are looking to cover 70 percent of the LPG demand in the country. It means that there will not be shortages as we used to experience in the past. Even if there will be shortages, they will be in just some few spots but not nationwide.?
The news is no doubt welcoming, especially to those whose livelihoods depend on the continuous supply of LPG, and in particular, commercial vehicle operators, and industries who have converted their heavy duty machines and equipment from diesel use to LPG, for cost consideration.
Consumption of LPG over the years has witnessed a considerable increase. It is estimated that automobile users of LPG consume about 58 percent of the total annual LPG supply while households, commercial operators and industry together consume the remaining 42 percent.
With the coming on stream of the Gas Processing Plant, the country can expect to reduce its LPG import dependency drastically. But most importantly, provides hope for achieving the objective set out in the country’s energy policy document of February 2010, which states the policy goal in section 3.5 as:
?Facilitate the universal access to adequate, reliable and cost effective petroleum products, such as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Currently the GNGC produces some 195,000 tonnes of LPG per day out of an estimated total requirement of 278,571 tonnes.
When contacted via telephone to confirm the story, The Corporate Communication Manager of GNGC, Mr Alfred Ogbamey, said he could not speak to the issue at the moment.
?I can’t speak to the issue at the moment. There is a policy not to speak to the media. I can only speak in two weeks time.? He said.
Ghana currently has gas deposits of about 200 billion standard cubic feet offshore the Jubilee Field, which the country wants to utilise as a source of cheap fuel to power its thermal plants for generating electricity.
The processing plant can process all the 150 million standard cubic feet of gas per day capacity of the Jubilee Field partners. The Ghana Gas project, which has begun producing gas to power the thermal plants of the country’s energy generator VRA, could mean a 20?/o reduction in fuel costs to the power industry – or savings of $2billion over a 10-year period. For the industry as a whole, this is enough to fund one 400MW power plant every other year.
