The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has absolved itself of blame for last Thursday’s power supply challenges.
The Corporation says it had no duty to execute in affecting the outage.
In a press statement issued on Monday, October 30, GNPC said some “misinformed individuals depicting themselves as energy analysts” have blamed it for the outage.
According to the institution, these analysts said the incident happened due to their failure to pay West Africa Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCO) its debt owed.
However, it explained that it is ECG that pays WAPCO directly or otherwise for gas transported.
“It should be noted that GNPC is not responsible for the power supply challenges that occurred in the country on Thursday but has rather stepped up on many occasions to prevent gas supply interruptions by paying for gas transportation at the expense of its core operations.”
“The GNPC CEO and senior management have proactively engaged WAPCO several times this year to successfully negotiate feasible payment arrangements that have prevented the curtailment of gas transportation services.”
It thus elucidated the public on its duties in that regard.
“The GNPC is a counterparty to the Gas Transportation Agreement (GTA) with WAPCO for the transportation of gas to power plants, as per the OCTP Gas Sales Agreements (GSA) requirements – therefore, WAPCO directly invoices GNPC.”
“The gas is transported to the Independent Power Producers (IPPS) to generate power that ECG distributes to consumers as electricity. Ultimately, monies received by ECG after the sale of electricity is utilised to pay, either directly or indirectly, all the electricity service providers downstream of the value chain, including WAPCO.”
“Traditionally, ECG pays for gas transportation invoices through the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM). However, funds received by GNPC from ECG have not been sufficient to pay for the WAPCO invoices, especially in recent times.
“Between July and October this year, GNPC has explored every avenue possible to get ECG to honour the overdue payments to no avail – this is documented in numerous letters to ECG and the Minister for Energy, requesting payments, and highlighting the potential consequences of curtailment of gas transportation services.”