The Chief Executive for the Ghana Gas Company, Dr. Ben Asante,is making a case for more gas pipelines in the West African sub region to improve distribution of the commodity at affordable rate for countries that need it most.

According to him, the lack of infrastructure on the continent and the region is contributing to the high cost of gas.

Dr. Ben Asante made the call in a speech at this year’s Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) biennial summit and exhibition in Accra under the theme: “Embracing Innovation, redefining the future of the oil and gas industry in Africa”.

The second biennial summit and exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers international is part of initiatives to create a common platform to discuss matters of concern for the industry.

Dr. Ben Asante who is also the Section Chairman for the SPE, in a keynote speech advocated for adequate investments in infrastructure including pipelines to be able to transport gas to member countries at affordable rate.

“We need to expand our pipelines and get new infrastructure from producing countries to the neighboring countries that need them. This is an investment that members in the sub region should be looking forward to and the reason I believe the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline is a great idea, although there is the West African Gas Pipeline but we need more”.

“Whilst at it, let’s also build local capacity so that our own local engineers and skilled youth can manage the infrastructure without any foreign interference” he charged.

Section Director for SPE Ghana and Coordinator for the Association of Oil Marketing Companies, Ghana, Dr. Riverson Oppong explained that technology can be deployed to deal with the infrastructure gap in the sector.

He further called for more collaboration among member nations to support with the ongoing transition process in the sector.

The Regional Director for SPE Africa, Eghogho Effiam stressed the need for more collaboration between government and private sector for Africa to maximize benefit from the oil and gas industry.