Outlook for gas industry very bright - West Africa Gas Pipeline Company

The General Manager, Corporate Affairs, West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo), Dr Isaac Adjei Doku says the outlook for the gas industry is bright as discussions are underway to further develop gas infrastructure in the West African Sub-region.

“Discussions are going on. There’s something we call the Nigeria- Morocco gas pipeline that is going to fly along the whole of the West Coast, all the way to Morocco,” he said.

Dr Doku revealed this during an interaction with Journalists in Takoradi on Tuesday to update the media on operations of the company.

ECOWAS, he said, had the vision to also build a pipeline distribution “so that we can have gas flowing to the landlocked countries.”

For example, he mentioned that, Ghana exported a lot of power to Burkina Faso, a landlocked country, adding that, “the idea again would be adding Niger, Mali, also landlocked countries, connected with gas.”

Additionally, he said power stations could be built in those countries for power generation.

“These are long term goals, but, currently, unless our shareholders of course, express interest. The key thing is to consolidate what we are doing between Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana. I think we have been a success story because we read a lot about WAPCo in the media,” he said.

WAPCo, he said, over the years, had acquired the knowledge and expertise, operated the pipeline in four countries with different fiscal and tax regimes.

These factors, the General Manager said, would be harmonised and leveraged for the long term view of ECOWAS.

WAPco, DrDoku said, was an international company transporting natural gas in Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana and operated in the West African gas pipeline system, linked the Escravos Lagos pipeline in Itoki in Nigeria.

From there, it proceeded to company’s compressor station near Badagry in Lagos,Nigeria and stretched offshore through Benin all the way to Takoradi in Ghana.

In 2019, however, pipeline was extended with interconnections to Ghana Gas Pipeline system, allowing gas from Atuabo, in western Ghana, to be supplied into the sub regional systems.

In the 1990s, Dr Doku said, there was scarcity of using resources and it became part of the ECOWAS vision that Nigeria resources could be tapped instead allowing flaring at the time coupled with environmental challenges.