The current challenges facing the gas processing plant at Atuabo in terms of completing the facility on time might not be over soon.

The gas from the Jubilee Field which would be used to fuel the plant is being released into the atmosphere.

According to Tullow, it would release 500 million standard cubic feet of gas per month till October this year.

The initial plan by government was to hold the gas in reservoirs at the field and use it to power the plant at Atuabo when it is completed.  

Meanwhile, energy policy analyst, John Peter Amewu says the decision to flare the gas could cripple the entire energy sector in the short term.

“If the little gas you have now you are going to flare it, of course what it means is that you are going to have a little left over for the generation plant to use in future.

“So number one, our power sector is going to be in difficulty because of insufficient gas.”

The plant which is expected to process gas from the Jubilee Field for power generation missed its December 2012 deadline.

Its completion was expected to help improve the country's current power challenges and possibly drive the cost of producing power, which could obliviously affect utility tariffs.

Meanwhile, a Sekondi High Court has restrained the Ghana National Gas Company, SINOPEC, and three others from carrying on with any activity on the land on which they operate.

The court slapped the firms with an interlocutory order restraining them from carrying on any activity on the land on which Ghana Gas operates until the company regularises its occupation with the Eastern Nzema Traditional Council in the next 14 days.