Nigerian gas company, N-Gas, the
main supplier of gas to Ghana’s Volta River Authority through the West African
Gas Pipeline, has given the VRA up to the end of February 2016 to clear its
outstanding debt of $171.5m (N33.79bn).
The N-Gas buys gas from oil
companies in Nigeria and transport the commodity to its customers in Benin,
Togo and Ghana through the $1bn WAGP, which is operated by the West African Gas
Pipeline Company.
The N-Gas had recently said it would
cut gas supply by 70 per cent to Ghana’s main power generation company by
Friday, October 16, 2015 due to unpaid debts of $181m.
The VRA was said to have paid $9.5m
last Friday out of the $181m debt for gas supplied from August 2014 to this
month.
Sources close to the team that met
the N-Gas officials last week to negotiate the payment terms told The Finder
that the $171.5m was to be paid in three tranches from now to the end of
February 2016, according to GhanaWeb.
The debt covers gas supplied to the
VRA and the cost of supply and transportation of the commodity from Nigeria to
Ghana.
This means the Government of Ghana,
which is the 100 per cent owner of the VRA, will have to look for money to bail
out the firm in order to ensure that the N-Gas does not cut gas supply to the
country.
The N-Gas had deferred a plan to slash
gas exports to Ghana beginning last Friday over the unpaid debt, compelling the
country to pay $9.5m and ask for time to come up with the rest.
Ghana gets about 25 per cent of its
power supply through gas from Nigeria, which flows through the pipeline via
Benin and Togo, and the threat by the N-Gas to reduce volumes by 70 per cent
would have raised the cost of supply.
The N-Gas is jointly owned by Shell
Petroleum Development Company, Chevron Nigeria Limited and the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation.
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