… says its maintenance exercise is to enhance performance
The West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) Limited has allayed the fears of its customers in Ghana, Togo, and Benin Republic regarding the maintenance exercise it is conducting on its gas facilities stretching from ‘Lagos Beach’ in Badagry, Nigeria, through Cotonou, Lome, Takoradi and Tema in Ghana
The maintenance exercise called pigging is a process whereby water and other impurities are removed from the pipeline, to enhance proper and free flow of gas supply to the stakeholders. In addition to this, some of the valves connecting the pipeline to the stakeholders will be changed as their integrity has been challenged, the company stated
According to Dr. Isaac Doku, General Manager of West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited, the exercise is carried out every five years.
The exercise which was officially launched in Nigeria on Friday, February 7, 2025, will take at least between three to four weeks to be completed, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
“It’s a whole series of things, they had a checklist, and that they have to take. It’s just like a pilot and co-pilot taking the plane, and the pilot might have flown the plane a hundred times, but all the same, they go through the checklist to make sure that everything is fine. So the first instrument is what we call the foam pig. That is just to prove that the subsequent ones can go through.
So it’s very light, it’s made of foam, it’s got sort of a coating around it which protects it. The foam helps to ensure the pigging doesn’t disintegrate, with minimal friction. It enables the gas to push it.
Explaining further, Dr. Doku said what observers saw the workers and contractors doing at the site was, ‘First of all, there’s gas in the pipeline already. They have to put in the barrier where the pig was placed, it is called the launcher, and is actually closed, and isolated.”
He said there’s a lot of apprehension in Togo, Benin, and Ghana for obvious reasons that there’s no gas. But, he assured that there will not be disruption to power supply in those countries as the various governments concerned have taken proactive steps to forestalled that.
“Are we going to be sleeping in darkness? Certainly, this would not happen. But, as I said, even now, about 80 million standard cubic feet of gas out of the normal 150 million standard cubic feet of gas is pushing the pig to Takaradi. And that gas is being received in Takaradi for power generation. So with all these happening, it’s only Tema in Ghana that has no gas.”
The governments also have quickly made alternative arrangements. “I think Ghana ordered some emergency crude oil from Nigeria when the new government came into power. The crude oil is being treated, and in a couple of days, it should be ready. The government though already has some in stock, but it will not be enough for the duration that we are doing the pigging exercise. So these are the few things I wanted to share with you and the general public in respect of the exercise.”