Special topics
The Minister of Energy Dr Joe Oteng Adjei, has assured Ghanaians that the ultrasonic metres for FPSO Kwame Nkrumah oil grid to prevent the re-occurance of the resort to traditional methods to calculate the amount of oil the country is producing in the event of the malfunctioning of the ultra sonic metres.
The malfunctioning of the ultra sonic metre on the FPSO last year necessitated the use of the traditional methods which the Minister of Energy said were fraught with problems in arriving at the amount of petroleum being produced on the country’s oilfields.
He said the ministry had to fall on the Ghana Standard Board and other stakeholders to ensure that the margin of error during the readings was reduced to the barest minimum. Mr. Adjei disclosed these when he took his turn to answer questions in Parliament yesterday.
The minister told Parliament that the problem of the malfunctioning ultra sonic metre on the FPSO had been rectified since August last year and the ministry was taking a cue from the lessons learnt to acquire two extra ones so that in the case of any breakdown on the part of the metres there could be spares available. He explained that a new one had already been built and two were on board had been recalibrated. He said the newly acquired metre and one of the recalibrated had been installed on the FPSO while the recalibrated metre was being kept a spare.
He noted that the recalibration was witnessed by representatives from the Standards Authority of Ghana and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and the properly calibrated flow metre and the new one were installed last year in August.
On the Self Help Electrification Project (IV) the Minister of Energy said contracts had been signed with three local cable and conductor manufactures for the supply of outstanding cables and conductors for installation works .He said the supply for cables and conductors had already commenced since December 2011 and was expected to be completed by December 2013.
He said it was suicidal to attach a time frame as to when the SHEP IV projects throughout the country could be completed ,since the procurement process required more time.
He, however, assured members that the ministry had resorted to restrictive tendering to fasttrack the procurement process. The minister said the government had also provided funds to procure over 800 transformers from India and currently a team has left for India to inspect the transformers before shipment to Ghana.
The Agogo and Asuboi communities in Offinso South District ,the minister said, were included in the SHEP project and the high and low voltage works had been completed at Agogo while the supply of the remaining materials were expected.
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