The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has disassociated itself from any blame for the power supply challenges experienced last Thursday, 26 October 2023, asserting that it had no role in causing the outage.
In a statement issued on Monday, 30 October 2023, GNPC addressed allegations made by “misinformed individuals depicting themselves as energy analysts” who had held GNPC responsible for the power outage.
These analysts had suggested that the incident occurred due to GNPC’s failure to settle its debt owed to the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCO).
The Corporation clarified that it is the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) that directly handles payments to WAPCO for gas transportation and not GNPC.
The statement emphasised: “It should be noted that GNPC is not responsible for the power supply challenges that occurred in the country on Thursday but has rather stepped up on many occasions to prevent gas supply interruptions by paying for gas transportation at the expense of its core operations.”
The statement said, GNPC’s Chief Executive Officer and senior management have actively engaged with WAPCO on multiple occasions this year to negotiate feasible payment arrangements that have prevented any disruptions in gas transportation services.
The statement further outlined GNPC’s role in the gas supply chain, saying: “The GNPC is a counterparty to the Gas Transportation Agreement (GTA) with WAPCO for the transportation of gas to power plants, as per the OCTP Gas Sales Agreements (GSA) requirements—therefore, WAPCO directly invoices GNPC. The gas is transported to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to generate power that ECG distributes to consumers as electricity. Ultimately, monies received by ECG after the sale of electricity are utilised to pay, either directly or indirectly, all the electricity service providers downstream of the value chain, including WAPCO.”
GNPC also revealed that funds received from ECG were insufficient to cover the WAPCO invoices, particularly in recent times.
It further stated: “Between July and October this year, GNPC has explored every avenue possible to get ECG to honour the overdue payments to no avail.”
It added: “This is documented in numerous letters to ECG and the Minister for Energy, requesting payments, and highlighting the potential consequences of curtailment of gas transportation services.”
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