Two European companies have discovered 1.8 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Western Region. The new gas is expected to support the country’s thermal energy generation and feed the over one billion dollar fertiliser plant currently being built at Nyankrom in the Shama District of the Western Region. The companies, ENI of Italy and Vitol, a Dutch commodities trading company, have already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with representatives of the government and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation on the operation and management of the new gas field. Under the MoU, ENI will serve as the operator in the development and commercialisation of natural gas reserves discovered offshore at Cape Three Points block. The Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic said the companies also discovered a minor indication of oil at the Sankofa Oilfield, situated within the Cape Three Points block. He said the country was on the verge of emerging as a regional energy powerhouse. Mr Buah explained that the two discoveries were different from the gas obtained from the other oilfields. “The discoveries and the volumes give us the hope of more generation capacities now and in the future,” he said. He added that the investment in the processing facility at Atuabo in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region by the government was very strategic, since it would receive the gas from all other fields, apart from the jubilee field, for processing.