Ghana celebrates start of West Africa Gas Pipeline project

Gas energy is cheaper and cleaner than petrol and as such will ensure that the Ghanaian consumer gets better value for his money, the president told the gathering.

Gas energy was one of the policy options expedited by the government during the country’s recent energy shortage resulting from decrease of the water level of Akosombo Dam, the main source of power in Ghana.

"Only yesterday the long-awaited West Africa Gas Pipeline came on stream with its first flow of gas. This is a more affordable source of energy than crude oil," Kufuor said while addressing members of his party shortly after its convention at the University of Ghana campus in Accra.

The announcement of the start of WAGP is coming a few days after the price of fuel went up by about 5 percent in Ghana. The hike is attributed to an upsurge in the prices of crude oil on the world market.

"Electricity cost has gone up by 35 percent in the last three months. Our hope is that with the gas project now in place the cost will come down again," said Eboh Addoh, a businessman in Accra.

"We are happy that the project has finally started to work. I think this is when we’ve really shown that we are serious about integrating the countries in West Africa," said Naniette Yaw, a worker with an airline company.

The project is a 678-kilometre pipeline designed to transport natural gas from Nigeria to Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana.

Chevron Nigeria is the project’s operator with a 36.7 percent stake. Other shareholders in the project, which is a public-private sector partnership, are Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which holds 25 percent; Shell, 18 percent; Ghana’s Volta River Authority, 16.3 percent; Societe Togolaise de Gaz (SoToGaz) of Togo, 2 percent, and Societe Ben Gaz S.A (SoBeGaz) of Benin, 2 percent.

The World Bank, which assisted with funding for the project, estimates that Benin , Togo and Ghana can save $600-million in energy costs over a 20-year period. Ghana also calculates that it will save 20,000 to 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day by taking gas from WAGP to run its power plants.