Fears that the country’s gas infrastructure project at Atuabo could suffer further delays, have been allayed as the Chinese contractor, SINOPEC is expected to resume work Thursday 2nd May. The Chinese petrochemical firm, Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corporation, abandoned the project at Atuabo in the Western Region because of nonpayment of funds to pre-finance the project. There have been concerns this could further delay the project because it would only compel the Jubilee operators to flare gas which would negatively affect the country’s oil production. There are serious concerns about the environmental implications of the process of flaring gas. Ghana has decided to uphold high levels of environmental standards and hence analysts think the practice could be bad for Ghana’s environmental standards. But the Communications Consultant at the Energy Ministry, Edward Bawa told Joy Business government has reached a mutual agreement with SINOPEC that should see the work on the project recommence today, May 2, 2013. Mr. Bawa said the Attorney-General’s department and the Ministry of Finance with their China Development Bank (CDB) counterpart have been able to reach an agreement with the contractor for work to continue. According to Mr. Bawa, SINOPEC has agreed to stay back and work. The project when completed will treat raw gas from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah to the fuel grade for power plants to boost the nation’s electricity supply by 1,000 megawatts and produce valuable by-products such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and condensate translate in an additional income of approximately US$ 300 million per year for the country. The $700 million Gas infrastructure project is being funded from the $3 billion loan from the China Development Bank (CDB) which is currently delaying.