GAS PIPLELINE PROJECT TO BE READY NEXT YEAR (BACK PAGE, NOV 28)

THE West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCO) will have the compression capacity to supply the Volta River Authority (VRA) with enough gas to power four of its 110 megawatt turbines by the first quarter of 2010.
Work on the compressor station in Nigeria and the regulating and metering stations in Tema, Lome and Cotonou is nearing completion and the inauguration of the system will commence by the end of this year to pave way for the deliveries, which will benefit Benin and Togo as well.
The Managing Director of WAPCO, Mr Jack Derickson, made this known at a stakeholders’ forum in Tema to give an update on the project, pipeline safety, emergency responses, risk and danger signs and unauthorised activities and also share some of the challenges facing the company.
The stakeholders, made up of regulatory agencies, NGOs and the communities along the pipeline, included representatives from the Ghana National Fire Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, fishermen associations in Tema and Kpone and the Kpone and Tema traditional councils.
Mr Derickson stated that in April 2009 WAPCO supplied gas to the VRA station at Aboadze under an interim sales arrangement but had to abandon it in May 2009 because of the vandalisation of the pipelines in the Niger Delta region upstream the WAPCO connection to the system.
He explained that the compressor station under construction in Lagos would enable WAPCO to transport higher volumes of gas from Nigeria to Ghana, Togo and Benin.
He expressed WAPCO's commitment to engage in open, proactive and responsive communication with its stakeholders through regular meetings.
Mr Derickson commended the stakeholders for their tremendous support, which had promoted the success of the project, noting that WAPCO was guided by internationally accepted norms, rules and regulations.
The Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Robert Kempes Ofosuware, commended WAPCO for initiating a series of community and stakeholders fora which, in his view, were tools for sustainable partnership.
There were presentations on project update, overview of natural gas, pipeline safety, emergency responses, as well as offshore pipeline security.