Our engineers fixing leakage detected on gas heat exchanger – Atuabo Gas

The Head of Communications at Ghana Gas, Ernest Owusu Bempah, says a leaking gas to gas heat exchanger detected during testing and commissioning after its two-week routine maintenance is to blame for the delayed resumption of gas processing.

Addressing the press conference at Anokye to explain why Ghana Gas has not resumed work since its 4th October two-week maintenance shutdown, Mr. Owusu Bempah said the maintenance was done, but a leakage was detected during its test and commissioning.

“In line with Ghana Gas standard operation procedure, gas supply to the Atuabo Processing plant was curtailed by triggering the emergency shutdown. According to our engineers, it is a layer of control of activation due to increase leakage of gas cloud build-up from one of the gas to gas heat exchangers flanked currently under what they were trying to put together to make sure that those heat to heat exchangers would be dealt with“, he said.

Mr. Owusu Bempah while stating that what has happened is normal, also said Ghana Gas has all it takes to fix the problem anytime soon.

“What has happened can happen in any department where while you're doing planned maintenance you detect a slight leakage that needs to be addressed. The engineers were called to duty immediately to deal with the situation, and they are doing just that to get the situation under control within the shortest possible time. In fact, we have done a lot of shutdowns that have gone without a hitch. And the control room triggered notice to the offshore and with the advice of engineers had to shut down…the processing plant can be shut down because of consistent maintenance protocols that we need to follow. So today, if we give a maintenance timeline, and we feel that we require to shut down to make sure that everything is on point before we go ahead to bring back the plant, we can do so because it is a global standard which our capable engineers are committed to”, he added.

The Corporate Communications Head of Ghana Gas said the appropriate notifications have already been given to all stakeholders in order not to disturb the gas supply value chain.

“Ghana Gas has engaged key stakeholders within the energy sector to ensure that no negative impact of reliable power supply occurs as it was done during the planned October 4th maintenance to enable Ghana Gas to continue to do what is required to resume the plant back to operation,” he emphasized.

The General Manager In-charge of Operations at Ghana Gas, Ingineer Robert Lartey, said Ghana Gas is taking the right measures and not going to put profit over safety.

The Ghana National Gas Company, GNGC, on Monday, 4th October 2021, commenced a two-week routine planned maintenance shutdown at the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant and was anticipated to resume gas processing by 18th October 2021.