Special topics
The Atuabo Gas Plant on 1st February 2017 shut down for routine maintenance. This was following the cessation of the flaring and venting of an essential gas by-product Isopentane. The Gas Plant had resorted to flaring the derivative against Ghana’s no gas flaring policy only after several attempts to sell it off proved vain.
Quite recently, the government of Ghana through the Ghana Gas Company entered into an agreement with ENI to commercialize the gas derivative to assist the downstream petrochemical industry and to channel isopentane as fertilizer feedstock to aid the agro-chemical industry. GE Power and Marinus Energy also announced a pilot project to capture Isopentane gas and use it as a feedstock for generating electricity.
In addition to the above, Ghana National Gas Company together with upstream giants like Eni, plan to increase daily production to 405 mmscf by constructing a tie-in to Atuabo.
Currently, The Jubilee Field produces 120 mmscf, TEN Field 60 mscf and Sankofa 180 mmscf totaling 360 mmscfd. Considering this current production, the Atuabo gas plant has the capacity to produce 150 mscf as against the estimated 560 mmscf of natural gas demand by the country daily.
Source: GNGC, 2018,Author
Source: GNGC, 2018
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