The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) said on Thursday that it is looking to further expand its customer base to industrial customers and find new supply sources soon.
WAPCo, the owner and operator of the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) built to supply natural gas from Nigeria to customers in Benin, Togo and Ghana, said gas from Ghana was added to its supply in 2019.
The company said in a statement that the WAGP was able to set a new record on monthly average gas deliveries to customers across the pipeline of over 215 million standard cubic feet per day in March 2022.
It attributed the feat to the improvement in gas supply from Nigeria, the completion of Takoradi to Tema Interconnection Project in Ghana and the growing demand for use of gas in power supply in Ghana, Togo and Benin.
“WAPCo is looking beyond today to further expand its customer base to industrial customers and new supply sources soon,” it said.
The company said it would hold a major event in Nigeria to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of its commercial operations.
“The event is also aimed at appreciating our diverse stakeholders in Nigeria who have supported us through the years to make this ECOWAS vision a reality,” it said.
WAPCo said it had overcome a challenging decade to become an efficient and dependable transporter of natural gas to customers in Togo, Benin, and Ghana, promoting safe, clean, long-term, and secure power generation from gas supply sources, in both Nigeria and Ghana.
“Thanks to the determination of our talented workforce and collaborative efforts of our key stakeholders, we see marked improvement in the new decade and a clear path to being a world-class pipeline company in a unique region of the world,” Greg Germani, WAPCo’s managing director, said.
The company commended the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, its shareholders, customers, partners, regulators, the traditional leaders, and community stakeholders for their invaluable support over the period.
“The strong collaborative support we get from governments across the four countries and our customers is setting us on a path to achieve success in the first phase of the ECOWAS vision for cleaner and more efficient energy across the West Africa region,” Germani said.
Read also: Energy transition in peril as govts spend $18trn on fossil fuel subsidies in 2yrs
According to the statement, this support resulted in some major achievements that have placed WAPCo in an excellent position to fulfill the company’s mission to transport natural gas from producers in Nigeria and Ghana to consumers in Benin, Togo, and Ghana in a safe, responsible, and reliable manner.
It said: “Notable among these achievements are the significant improvement in reliable gas supply from Nigeria, the implementation of an Operational Excellence Management System, the completion of the Takoradi to Tema Interconnection Project in Ghana that allowed the addition of gas supply from oil and gas fields in Western Ghana to the WAGP in 2019.
“WAPCo’s key business partner, the Nigerian Gas Company Limited, was able to mitigate issues on their Escravos to Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) allowing them to lift a prolonged force majeure on the ELPS, which had been affecting gas supply to the WAGP from the east. Due to this development, WAGP is now in a better position to transport record volumes of gas to customers.”
The company said its continued focus on operational excellence and a strong safety culture allowed it to achieve zero recordable incidents for the past eight years and 9 million workforce hours without a recordable incident, helping to protect it’s workforce and host communities.
“As the company enters another decade of commercial operations, we look forward to greater achievements and impact in the sub-region, fulfilling our mission as an international company transporting natural gas in a safe, responsible, and reliable manner,” it added.
