WORK PROGRESSES ON GAS STORAGE FACILITY PLANT

(Workers busily working on the facility)














WORK on a multi-million dollar Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage facility to increase the country’s storage capacity is underway at the Kpone Industrial Area in Tema.

When completed, the facility can store up to 4000 metric tonnes of LPG.

The structure, belonging to the Fueltrade Limited, a bulk distributor of refined petroleum products, is being constructed at $50 million.

According to officials of FuelTrade, the storage facility would increase the country’s current national storage capacity of some 6,300 metric tonnes to about 11,700.

The project, which began in August, 2010 on 12 acres, is expected to be completed by March, 2012.

The Commercial and Technical Director of FuelTrade, Mr Andrews Baafi Owusu, told the Daily Graphic during a tour of the project site that the current 6300 storage capacity was woefully inadequate because of the increasing demand for the product by both commercial and domestic users.

The country’s weekly consumption of the commodity is about 4000 metric tonnes with the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) producing 50 to 60 per cent of the total national supply.

The consistent shortage of LPG has become a major source of worry to both consumers and stakeholders in the sector, while industry players and watchers have expressed worry that the intermittent shutdown of TOR’s production lines is also a major factor for the persistent shortage.

They have therefore called for a review of the subsidy, particularly with regard to commercial vehicle drivers who have found the commodity cheaper than petroleum products.

A recent publication by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) quoted the Deputy Minister of Energy, Mr Emmanuel Armah Buah, as saying that the government paid a monthly subsidy of GH¢14 million for LPG.

According to the report, the government’s subsidy on the commodity is aimed at cushioning the people while alternative arrangements are made to improve LPG infrastructure.

The Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) was incorporated to implement the national gas infrastructure project, according to the government, to own, manage and develop a national network of gas pipelines and gas treatment and storage facilities.

The company is also to market and sell gas, as well as carry out any general commercial activities related to the safe and reliable operation of the gas infrastructure.

Industry players, however, believe that the type of gas made up of ethane (C1) and methane (C2), better known as fuel gas, being produced at the Jubilee Fields might not necessarily solve the frequent challenges facing domestic consumption since these products are mainly used as petrochemical feedstock for ethylene production which is used to heat up crude oil for production.

For Jubilee gas to be used for domestic consumption, it must undergo processing called fractionation, where all materials other than methane are separated.

Source: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Aug 15, 2011