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West Africa gas ‘to flow by Christmas’



By Upstream staff 

The Chevron-operated West African Gas Pipeline will start supplying natural gas from Nigeria to Ghana's western port city of Takoradi on 23 December, an executive on the project said today.

The 678-kilometre pipeline will ultimately transport associated natural gas from Nigeria's oilfields to Benin and Togo as well as Ghana to help ease chronic power shortages around West Africa, seen as a key hindrance to the region's development.

"We are confident of delivering on schedule and we expect free flow of supplies to begin through the pipe towards Takoradi from Itoki (in Nigeria) on 23 December," Aderemi Oladapo, the project's general manager in charge of operations, told Reuters.

US supermajor Chevron holds a 36.7% stage in the West African Gas Pipeline Company.

Other shareholders include the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell, Ghana's Takoradi Power Company, Societe Togolaise de Gaz and Societe Beninoise de Gaz.

The project, estimated to cost $620 million, was initiated by the governments of Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo with the aim of making clean and cost-effective natural gas supplies available to supply gas-fired generating plants.

The World Bank has provided a guarantee of $50 million for Ghana, while the Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency has also provided a $75 million political risk guarantee for Wagpco as a whole.

Washington-based environmental group Friends of the Earth said in July the bank was investigating possible violations of its own procedures concerning the funding for the project, after local communities in Nigeria complained it would damage land, destroy livelihoods and pollute fishing areas.


Monday, 26 November, 2007, 18:02 GMT  | last updated: Monday, 26 November, 2007, 18:11 GMT

On line soon: the West African Gas Pipeline
 

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