Page 16 - DMEA Week 47 2020

DMEA LNG DMEA

EAIF lends $31mn to Tema

regasification scheme

GHANA THE Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund “The new terminal at Tema is an innovative
(EAIF) has backed a regasification project in approach to securing reliable and cost-efficient
The terminal will Ghana’s port of Tema with a $31mn loan. gas supply,” Martijn Proos, a director at Ninety
provide cleaner and The loan, with a duration of 10 years, will go One, which manages EAIF, said in a statement.
cheaper energy to local to the project’s developer Access LNG, a joint “The investment by EAIF will contribute to
industry. venture between Helios Investment Partners and reducing carbon emissions, contributing to
Gasfin Development. The pair reached financial Ghana’s long-term energy needs and strength-
close on the scheme on November 16. ening its economic stability and economic devel-
The EAIF loan will help cover the cost of a opment efforts.”
floating regasification unit (FRU), due to be The Tema facility, he continued, “answers
integrated with an LNG carrier that will be used Ghana’s need for greater fuel security and opti-
for storage. Both vessels will be permanently mal supply. The project will reduce the cost of
moored. power generation for Ghana’s power sector,
Work on the project’s fixed infrastructure, provide an adequate margin of fuel reserves and
including a breakwater, mooring facilities, a benefit the ongoing expansion of the country’s
subsea pipeline and an 8-km onshore pipeline, electricity and gas grids.”
was financed separately. This infrastructure will Helios partner Ogbemi Ofuya suggested
link the terminal to industrial areas in Tema. Access LNG could provide additional LNG
The gas will be used as fuel at thermal power projects in sub-Saharan Africa. The current
plants (TPPs), providing a cleaner and less costly low price of gas, he said, means “there is a great
option to light crude oil and heavy fuel oil, as well opportunity for Access to support markets
as at other industrial facilities. switching to natural gas as a clean, cheap transi-
The project’s developers originally aimed tion fuel as we push developments to support a
to launch operations in mid-2020, but the new greener, more efficient energy economy.”
schedule is unclear. According to Gasfin, the EAIF represents part of the Private Infra-
terminal will deliver 250mn cubic feet per day structure Development Group (PIDG), backed
(2.58bn cubic metres per year) of gas. by seven donor countries and the World Bank.™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 26•November•2020