The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) has refuted claims that it is facing technical challenges leading to power outages experienced in parts of the country on Friday, July 7.
In a statement released by the Ghana Grid Company Ltd (GRIDCO) on July 7, the power outages were attributed to a shortage of gas supply from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant (GPP) and the West African Gas Pipeline (WAPCo). GRIDCO stated that this shortage had resulted in a supply gap of 650MW.
However, WAPCo has responded, asserting that it should not be held responsible for the outages and clarifying that its facilities were fully operational and capable of delivering gas.
“WAPCo wishes to set the record straight that we did not have any technical issues, and our facilities were, and still are, fully available to deliver gas,” emphasized WAPCo in its statement.
WAPCo attributed the challenges experienced on Friday to the non-availability of gas from the National Gas Company’s plant at Atuabo, which had encountered an issue and consequently prevented WAPCo from transporting the gas.
“WAPCo transports gas based on its agreements with Gas shippers. These Shippers purchase Gas from Gas suppliers, transport the gas via WAPCo pipelines, and sell the natural gas to Gas Offtakers (mainly power companies). When the agreed volume of gas is made available, WAPCo dutifully transports it to the shipper’s customers. The challenge yesterday was that the Ghana National Gas Company’s plant at Atuabo went down, and therefore there was no gas available for WAPCo to transport,” clarified WAPCo.
With this statement, WAPCo aimed to clarify that it was not responsible for the technical issues leading to the power outages, placing the blame on the non-availability of gas from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant caused by the plant’s breakdown.