A persistent disruption in the gas supply from Nigeria is causing blackouts in certain areas of Ghana and other West African countries.
Following the development, our correspondent discovered that there had been blackouts in a number of cities in Ghana, the Republic of Benin, and Togo.
On Wednesday, the Accra, Ghana-based West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited declared that the amount of gas it could carry had decreased, according to PUNCH.
One of WAPCO’s gas producers in Nigeria was performing minor maintenance, the company said in a statement. The gas company reportedly closed its facilities for three weeks to do maintenance as a result.
It said that as a result, there was less petrol available for WAPCo to deliver to its clients in Ghana, Togo, and Benin.
“The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited regrets to announce that it is experiencing a drop in gas volumes available for transportation due to ongoing maintenance works by one of its gas producers in Nigeria.
“One of the producers of the natural gas WAPCo transports from Nigeria has shut down its facility for a three-week maintenance, resulting in a decrease of gas available for WAPCo to transport to customers in Togo, Benin and Ghana. The current situation is entirely out of WAPCo’s control.
“WAPCo continues to transport gas from the Westen Region of Ghana to Tema, also in Ghana, and we expect normalcy to return after the maintenance activities,” the statement read.
Findings show that as a result of the development, the impacted countries are currently facing electricity issues.
Consumers of electricity in the nation have already been notified by the Ghana Grid Company Limited and the Electricity Company of Ghana that certain areas are now completely dark.
“Wishing to inform the public that due to a reduction in gas supply from Nigeria since Wednesday 12th June 2024 some areas across the country have experienced an interruption in power supply,” Ghana Grid Company Limited and the Electricity Company of Ghana stated in a statement they jointly signed.
The statement read further, “The West Africa Gas Pipeline Company, in a statement, has explained that the reduction in gas supply was due to maintenance works being undertaken by a gas supplier in Nigeria and is projected to last three weeks.
“The maintenance has caused a reduction in overall power generation capacity in Ghana which could result in load management over the period of the work.”
While GRIDCo and ECG expressed regret to its customers, they also gave the public the assurance that they were working with other power value chain partners to maximise available resources in order to minimise the impact of the gas supply reduction on consumers.
“GRIDCo and ECG sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused,” the statement concluded.
The West African Gas Pipeline is a regional infrastructure that connects natural gas resources to clients in the West Africa sub-region, particularly in Ghana. It is owned and operated by the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited.
The WAGP is a bi-directional pipeline system that receives its gas supply from Ghana in the west and Nigeria in the east.
