Ghana has taken delivery of sub-Saharan Africa’s first offshore receiving terminal for liquefied natural gas.
Tema LNG, a company backed by the United Kingdom-based Helios Investment Partners, said in a recent statement.
This will allow the country to start delivering LNG to customers in the first quarter of this year, Tema LNG said.
The terminal’s operator disclosed that a floating re-gasification unit built by a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation arrived in Ghana on Thursday.
It noted that Shell would supply the LNG under a long-term contract, and the gas would be delivered to customers of Ghana’s public utility service.
“Once operational, this FRU will allow the Tema LNG facility to receive, re-gasify, store and deliver roughly 1.7m tonnes of LNG a year – 30 per cent of Ghana’s general capacity,” said Project Manager, Edmund Agyeman-Duah.
Ghana tried to get an LNG import project off the ground for years, but two leading operators, Golar and Hoegh, withdrew due to delays over contracts.
Ghana, West Africa’s second-largest economy and a major producer of gold and cocoa, suffers from an unreliable supply of electricity.
“As evidenced in similar fast-growing economies in Asia and Latin America, the introduction of LNG into the energy mix serves as a catalyst for industrial and economic growth,” Helios Investment Partners’ Ogbemi Ofuya, stated.