The CEO of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has underscored the need for a resilient gas infrastructure to deliver reliable and adequate gas for national economic development.

He informed that building a regasification plant in Ghana would ensure the stable supply of gas which is essential to the growth and expansion of the robust Ghanaian economy.

Dr. Kofi Kodua Sarpong said other sources of gas supply in Ghana had some challenges hence the plant to ensure a stable gas supply as well as act as the lender of the last resort for the sector.

According to him, if Ghana had enough gas, the government would not import gas from Nigeria for power generation.

"People say there would be too much gas on the market, I can tell you, over the last two years, gas off-take from our fields has increased significantly, which suggests that Ghana’s measure of economic development was going up.

"Others would say if you have the Nigerian source, why are you bringing this one? We are bringing this because having the LNG in the fuel mix is an advantage because the gas line from Nigeria can sometimes be blocked.

"Even in our own field, for the greater part of last year, the Tain field was virtually down; Jubilee would produce, but sometimes when they go up to a certain level, their plants trip, and even Sankofa fields have their own absurd conditions. So if you have LNG coming then you have stable supply because there would be another source of energy supply, etc", he explained.

He indicated that the terminal at Tema would be used to regasify the LNG before it could be used to power plants.

The CEO said this was beneficial to the government because crude fuel tended to be more expensive than gas. "Plants like Ameri and Asogli could be replaced with gas and the advantages are quite obvious, it’s cheaper and cleaner.