The routine work was meant to have taken two weeks, but engineers used five days to complete it, according to CEO of Ghana National Gas Company, Dr George Sipa Yankey.
“We shut down for maintenance on the 15th of this month, we charged the engineers to complete the maintenance work within fourteen days and in the course they had showed us that they will be able to complete the work within seven days, but they’ve succeeded in completing the entire maintenance works in five days and this, I think, is a credit for which they need to be recommended.
“Ghana gas is ready to transport gas to VRA before the close of the day. Today marks the completion of the maintenance works that we announced to the country last week,” Dr Sipa Yankey told journalists at a press conference Thursday January 21.
State power producer Volta River Authority (VRA) procured 600,000 barrels of light crude oil to power thermal plants at Aboadze, during the two-week period for which Atuabo was to have remained shut for the routine maintenance work.
A power supply shortfall of about 600MW was expected during the shutdown period. Fears had been expressed that the shutdown could worsen the power crisis.
However, the Chairman of the Load Management Committee, who doubles as CEO of state power transmitter, Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDco), Mr William Amuna, told journalists prior to the shutdown that the procurement of 600,000 barrels of light crude oil was meant to mitigate the expected shortfall.
Ghana Gas served notice of the closure of Atuabo to all its stakeholders on January 3.
The planned maintenance was the second since lean gas and associated liquids production began at Atuabo. The plant has been in operation for more than 8,000 hours since last year.
