The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) has announced its readiness to hold an event in Nigeria to mark the 10th anniversary of the commencement of its commercial operations.

According to a statement issued and made available to The Star on Thursday by WAPCo General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Dr Isaac Adjei Doku, the event is also aimed at appreciating the company’s diverse stakeholders in Nigeria who have supported the company over the years to make ECOWAS vision a reality.

“WAPCo started commercial operation in March 2011 and has overcome a challenging decade to become an efficient and dependable transporter of natural gas to customers in Togo, Benin, and Ghana, promoting safe, clean, long-term, and secure power generation from gas supply sources, in both Nigeria and Ghana.

“WAPCo will be the first to admit as we celebrate 10 years of commercial operations that the first decade was not easy. Thanks to the determination of our talented workforce and collaborative efforts of our key stakeholders, we see marked improvement in the new decade and a clear path to being a world-class pipeline company in a unique region of the world.

“We congratulate our OneWAPCo family members in Nigeria, for their dedication and hard work in the achievement of this milestone. Without the dedication and diligence of a world class workforce that works together as a team across four countries, this feat would not have been attainable,” WAPCo Managing Director, Greg Germani, said.

The company further expressed its appreciation to the Federal Government, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, its shareholders, customers, partners, regulators, the traditional leaders, and community stakeholders for their support over the period.

Germani added: “The strong collaborative support we get from governments across the four countries and our customers is setting us on a path to achieve success in the first phase of the ECOWAS vision for cleaner and more efficient energy across the West Africa region.

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“This support resulted in some major achievements that have placed WAPCo in an excellent position to fulfill the company’s mission to transport natural gas from producers in Nigeria and Ghana to consumers in Benin, Togo, and Ghana in a safe, responsible, and reliable manner.

“Notable among these achievements are the significant improvement in reliable gas supply from Nigeria, the implementation of an Operational Excellence Management System, the completion of the Takoradi to Tema Interconnection Project in Ghana that allowed the addition of gas supply from oil & gas fields in Western Ghana to the WAGP in 2019.

“WAPCo’s key business partner, the Nigerian Gas Company Limited (NGC), was able to mitigate issues on their Escravos to Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) allowing them to lift a prolonged force majeure on the ELPS, which had been affecting gas supply to the WAGP from the east.

“Due to this development, WAGP is now in a better position to transport record volumes of gas to customers.

“With the improvement in gas supply from Nigeria, the completion of Takoradi to Tema Interconnection Project in Ghana and the growing demand for use of gas in power supply in Ghana, Togo and Benin, the WAGP was able to set a new record on monthly average gas deliveries to customers across the pipeline of over 215 MMscfd in March 2022.

“WAPCo’s continued focus on operational excellence and a strong safety culture allowed it to achieve zero recordable incidents for the past 8 years and 9 million workforce hours without a recordable incident, helping to protect our workforce and the communities we operate in.

“As the company enters another decade of commercial operations, we look forward to greater achievements and impact in the sub-region, fulfilling our mission as an international company transporting natural gas in a safe, responsible, and reliable manner.

“WAPCo is looking beyond today to further expand its customer base to industrial customers and new supply sources soon,” WAPCo Managing Director stated.

The Star