Page 9 - GLNG Week 11 2021

GLNG AFRICA GLNG

IES urges Ghana to withdraw

support from Tema LNG terminal

PROJECTS & GHANA’S Institute of Energy Security (IES) News. “We already have excess gas being pro-
COMPANIES has urged officials in Accra to withdraw their duced in the western region, and when you are
endorsement for plans for the construction of importing more gas at an extra cost, that means
an LNG import terminal at the port of Tema. you are putting extra burden on the country’s
In a report published last week, IES asserted finances,” he asserted. “What we are suggesting
that Ghana had the ability to meet its own needs is that there should rather be a liquefaction unit
with domestic production and did not need to at Tema because that is the easiest point where
import natural gas. It recommended specifically we can reach other countries and where we can
that the country make more extensive use of the have [surplus] gas ... processed into a liquid
associated gas that it extracts from its oilfields. form and transported to other countries [that]
At present, the report noted, associated gas need gas.”
accounts for more than 59% of Ghana’s total Moses also suggested that Ghana’s govern- If natural gas
gas output, or around 68mn cubic feet (1.93mn ment take measures to stimulate domestic gas
cubic metres) per day. Most of these volumes are consumption. Accra should establish a favoura- supplies could
being flared off or re-injected into oil reservoirs ble regulatory regime and help expand the coun-
rather than transferred to Ghana National Gas try’s gas infrastructure, he said. be supplemented
Co. (GNGC) for domestic consumption, it said. IES published its report shortly after Tema
By contrast, IES pointed out, GNGC handles LNG Terminal Co. (TLTC), the owner of the with associated
most of the country’s natural gas output. This Tema LNG terminal, indicated that it might be gas, Ghana would
includes gas from Ghana’s three commercial able to start commercial operations in the near
fields, which turn out around 44 mmcf (1.25 future. According to a spokesman for the consor- not need to
mcm) per day, or about 38% of total production, tium, the terminal will be “mechanically ready”
it said. to take delivery of its first shipment within the import LNG, the
If natural gas supplies could be supplemented framework of a long-term supply contract with
with associated gas, Ghana would not need to Royal Dutch Shell (UK/Netherlands) by the end report argued.
import LNG, the report argued. It also urged of March.
officials in Accra to consider proposals for using The terminal consists of a floating regasifica-
associated gas as feedstock for the production of tion unit (FRU) and a separate floating storage
LNG that could be exported to other countries unit (FSU), both of which have been moored at
in the reason, speculating that this arrangement a new jetty built by West Africa Gas. The FRU is
might prove more profitable than imports via the capable of handling 1.7mn tonnes per year (tpy)
Tema LNG terminal. of LNG, and the storage vessel boosts the facil-
Fritz Moses, a research analyst at IES, stressed ity’s total storage capacity to 145,000-160,000
this point in an interview with Citi Business cubic metres.™

Week 11 19•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9