WAPCo’s Mandate Is To Transport Gas

–Management

The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) has explained that, the sole mandate of the company is to ensure the transportation of gas in a reliable, efficient and safe manner without any interruption.

According to the management, WAPCo, as an international company, is mindful of its role in ensuring that natural gas, which is a critical resource for power generation, is readily supplied from Nigeria to West African countries, such as Ghana, Benin and Togo, that depend on the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP’s) system.

At a media engagement in Accra on Monday, September 18,WAPCo’s General Manager in-charge of Corporate Affairs, Dr. Isaac Doku, said due to the company’s critical role, WAPCo will not do anything deliberately to jeopardize the countries that flow gas, using its facility for development.

“WAPCo will not deliberately do anything to jeopardize any of the countries that flow gas to the pipeline. As much as possible, we do all we can to make sure that gas is flowing, but WAPCo will not do anything deliberately [to sabotage].

“And that is why we are having this meeting so that we can all understand exactly the role WAPCo plays – it’s just to transport gas and in transporting the gas, we charge a fee for it. And we just want everybody to understand that, it takes enormous amount of time to be able to upkeep the pipelines and all the auxiliary services in a highest safety way, so that we can continue to supply the gas,” he stated.

Collaboration

Dr. Doku further explained that, aside from WAPCo’s key role of transporting gas, the company, as a business, sometimes collaborates with both the off takers as well as the shippers to find out whether there are any issues or challenges.

“As a business, we transport, but we do understand that at certain times people will reach out to us and the key thing for us, even though we transport, we have to collaborate with both the off takers as well as the shippers. So, people may reach out to us [when there are challenges]. So, we pick up the phone and call GNPC, pick up the phone and call Ngas, just to find out are there any issues?” he said.

According to him, “ideally, the off taker should call directly the shipper to find out that, I am not getting gas, to find out is there an issue? But because we are the middle transporter, they may reach out to us, so we then reach out to the shippers that is there an issue with the gas you supply and we then convey that to off taker, not only the off taker.”

Flanked by his Deputy External Relations Manager, William Osei Owusu, and Ms Nuna Senaya, the General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Doku indicated that, here in Ghana, WAPCo collaborates with GRIDCo, because GRIDCo manages the national grid in terms of power generations, adding that, whatever happens at the generation level impacts on the transmission across the country.

“So, that is the level of collaboration we do. We give GRIDCo some heads up, when there is going to be some challenges with GNPC or Ngas, we do make them aware that there could be this shortfall that we are flowing and so, bear in mind that it’s going to be power generation. So, that collaboration exists between the three of us,” Dr. Doku clarified.

Touching on the company’s maintenance culture, he said WAPCo does not compromise on its safety by making sure that its facilities are regularly maintained and safe for operations.

He said, “It takes money to make sure that the over 600kilometers of pipeline, stations and everything is well maintained, such that we can supply gas reliably, efficiently and uninterruptible.”

According to him, WAGP has a capacity of 465MMscf/d and even after the reserved capacity is considered, WAGP still has the capacity to transport more gas, based on agreements between shippers and off takers.

He mentioned that, WAPCo’s ability to transport gas from the western part of Ghana, following the successful completion of the Takoradi phase of the Takoradi to Tema Interconnection Project (TTIP) and the tie-in to the Ghana Gas transmission system, has further improved the volumes of gas that the WAGP transports.

Source: Anchorghana.com