The 470 MW Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan of Karpowership Ghana Limited, is expected to receive its first gas to power plants within the next four weeks, Minister of Energy John Peter Amewu has said.

The speculated time would afford the construction company, Amandi Construction Limited, to complete critical components of the project which include the 10-kilometre pipeline and regulating stations from the Takoradi Regulating and Metering Station at Aboadze to the Sekondi Naval Base, where the powership has docked.

Mr Amewu, after an inspection tour at the Onshore Terminal Station (OTS) at Essipong in the Western Region on Tuesday, 20 August 2019 ,observed that the project has been quite impressive despite some technical challenges that need to be addressed by ENI and Ghana Gas to facilitate the tie-in of the pipeline to the TRMS.

He was hopeful that the 17-day period for the interconnection of the pipelines and transmission to the Aboadze enclave would be realised.

"There's been some few problems as you might have heard ... because of some little delay in terms of having the first gas. Now that the Karpowership is available here, we need to quickly connect it to first gas. While it's here, it will still feed on heavy fuel for some short period. But the quicker we move for first gas, the better it is for us.

"The pipelines for the gas have been completed, the transmission lines are in place but at the OTS, there are certain things that need to be done, where the gas has to be reiterated in terms of bringing the pressure down," he explained to the media.

The entire project for the gas interconnection infrastructure by Amandi is due to be completed by October this year.

The General Manager of Amandi Construction Limited, Mr David Ben Ayun said they are working tirelessly to complete critical components of the project by September this year.

"The contract is expected to be executed by October. We are trying to accelerate it in order to get the first gas earlier", Mr Ayun stated.

For the next couple of weeks, the Karpowership will be feeding on heavy fuel to produce electricity.

The Managing Director of Karpowership Ghana Limited, Volkan Buyikbicer emphasised that the company is likely to kick into full operation by the end of August 2019.

"Within the shortest possible time, approximately by the end of this month, we are likely to begin generation", he stated.

Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM