Ghana Gas calls for a ‘Gas Act’

The Ghana Gas Company has called on the Energy Ministry, as a matter of urgency, to propose a bill to be passed into an act for the gas sector.

The law, according to Ghana Gas, will be instrumental in regulating the gas industry while ensuring best practices.

Explaining to the Goldstreet Business on how to improve on the prospects of the Gas Industry at the just ended Ghana International Petroleum Conference (GhIPCON) in Accra, Ghana Gas’ CEO, Dr. Ben Asante, said, the law will promote sustainable growth in the gas sector, while developing enabling policies across the gas value chain.

“That law, may automatically address issues of the Gas Master Plan which is the roadmap for the growth of the industry, including matters relating to the security of our gas infrastructure,” he noted.

Ensuring the security for the country’s gas infrastructure at Atuabo is very key in maintaining the facility, Dr. Asante explained.

“One key challenge, which had confronted countries in the sub-region, particularly in Nigeria, is the issue of how pirates in the recent past have attacked oil and gas facilities.

Militant assaults on Nigeria’s oil and gas infrastructure in 2016 cut the country’s output to less than 1.4 million barrels a day, the lowest in 27 years.

While there have been no major attacks since then, the security situation in that oil and gas region remains fluid, with persisting incidents of criminality, kidnapping and vandalism as well as onshore and offshore piracy.

However, Dr. Asante, maintained that government needs to take a cue from previous happenings in the sub-region in order to put in place enough security measures to protect the country’s facilities.

“That is how we can promote the sustainable growth of the oil and gas industry; that is, the deliberate investment in the protection of the country’s oil and gas infrastructure,” he emphasized.