The Ghana National Gas Company Limited (GNGCL) has saved over $250 million in operational costs by tapping into the knowledge and services of only Ghanaian engineers and technicians for the maintenance and operations of the gas processing plant.

Ghanaian engineers took over the operations of the gas processing plant from Sinopec, the Chinese contractors, in April 2017, resulting in three million dollars per month in accrued savings.

Dr Ben K. D. Asante, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Gas, made this known to the media in Accra during the Minister’s news briefing, on Sunday.

He said the company had about 1,000 permanent and contract Ghanaian staff in charge of the control room and other operating units of the facility.

Dr Asante further stated that the Ghanaian engineers and technicians' takeover of the firm’s operations formed part of the indigenisation of the gas processing plant, and it gave confidence to the people that they could perform if given the opportunity.

The CEO of Ghana Gas said since the take-over by the Ghanaian engineers, there had been three major successful shutdowns of the gas plant for maintenance purposes, which was spearheaded solely by the Ghanaian engineers.

Dr Asante noted that there had been pigging of onshore pipelines and pipeline integrity management and attained ISO 45001 occupational health, environmental and safety management systems, Dr Asante stated, noting; “There is no loss-time to injury.”

On the company’s corporate social responsibility, Dr Asante said, it had completed over 400 projects in areas such as healthcare, education, water and sanitation, and sports facilities across the 16 regions of Ghana, while over 80 projects were ongoing.

“As good partners of the community, the company gives back to the society through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects including education, health, water and sanitation, road infrastructure, support sports development, skills training and livelihoods empowerment programmes,” Dr Asante stated.

He said the GNGCL currently supplied natural gas for power generation, thus providing about 80 per cent of gas for thermal power generation, supplied six per cent of the lean gas and condensate for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), covering 50 per cent of the domestic LPG requirements.

The GNGCL was established in July 2011 as a limited liability company with the responsibility to build, operate and own natural gas infrastructure, required for gathering, processing, transportation and marketing of gas and gas derivatives for Ghana.