(Ecofin Agency) - Ghana on Friday revealed plans to ban improved supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Nigeria via the West African Gas Pipeline (WAPG) scheme, Guardian news reports. As a matter of fact, Ghana has complained about the failure to fully utilize the pipeline, which supplies an insignificant 50 million scf/d of gas to the country, out of its 460 million scf/d capacity.

“Nigeria need to supply gas through the WAGP pipeline, the capacity is about 460million scf/d and they pump like 50 mscfpd. It does not make sense, so it’s important that we work with Nigeria to move enough gas through the pipeline”, Alexander Koffi-Mensah Mould (photo) CEO, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) said.

According to Mould, Ghana feels unhappy with the situation and wants a review of the gas supply contract signed approximately 10 years ago. He said his country will accept talks with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the issue.

“Utilization of gas is very important for West Africa. Nigeria has abundance of gas but a lot of it is being flared. I understand they have gas infrastructure problem. Nigeria has a pipeline to Ghana and also have LNG trains. It uses most of its gas to produce LNG. They don’t supply Ghana the gas because, the gas gathering system has not being developed,” he said.

The CEO, disclosed that Ghana is currently constructing a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant with a capacity to produce 500 million scf/d of gas and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016.

“Ghana is now thinking of LNG regasification. There are discussions going on amongst the private sector because it’s a private sector initiative, to see how we can get Nigeria to invest in the gathering system to move the gas into the pipeline”.

He noted that the poor use of the abundant gas resources in Nigeria is causing obstacles for both countries in terms of electricity generation, in so doing obstructing industrial growth.

Anita Fatunji