The West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCO) has disclosed that the government of Ghana has a standing arrangement with N-Gas of Nigeria to clear an outstanding debt of about $100 million.
The assurances followed media reports revealing that the government of Ghana owes N-Gas some $160 million.
In times past, the debt owed N-Gas resulted in a cut in supply of gas to that country, which affected power generation.
The general manager, corporate affairs of WAGPCO, Harriet Wereko Brobbey, is quoted as saying that the current government had instituted an arrangement for paying the debt, which has largely been followed.
She explained that the agreement was reached when the NPP government came into office.
She said, "There is an arrangement in place now which is that the debt will be paid in tranches and we are happy... We know that this arrangement is actually for the money to be paid to N-Gas.
"There was a promise to pay, which was arrived at by this government. There is an arrangement in place for the debt to be paid in tranches. We are happy that the payment of the first tranche has been largely made. We are expecting the remainder to be paid within the next week. The second tranche is around a $100 million, and we are expecting that it will be paid".
N-Gas Limited, a company owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Chevron and Shell, buys gas from oil companies in Nigeria and transports to Ghana through the $1 billion WAGP.
The pipeline, which is operated by the West Africa Pipeline Company Limited, was built to supply natural gas from Nigeria to customers in Benin, Togo and Ghana.
N-Gas has an off-take agreement with Ghana to supply 120 million standard cubic feet of gas per day to the VRA, but supply to the country has fallen short of the contractual volume in recent years.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS