Ghana will experience a nationwide disruption in power supply on Sunday, July 13, as Italian energy firm Eni prepares to temporarily shut down its gas supply infrastructure for scheduled maintenance, the country’s Minister for Energy and Green Transition announced Monday.

The shutdown is expected to last several hours and will affect electricity generation across the national grid. The Energy Ministry says the move, while inconvenient in the short term, is necessary to facilitate an upgrade in gas production capacity to 270 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd).

“This Sunday, ENI will turn off their valves temporarily to increase gas production to about 270 MMscf. It means that we are stabilizing the energy sector,” said Minister John Abdullai Jinapor, speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony for the reconstruction of the Anwomaso-Kumasi transmission line, a key 161kV power artery in the Ashanti Region.

The line upgrade, co-financed by the European Union and the Government of France, aims to address persistent low voltage challenges in the Kumasi and Dukwaw mining zones and improve overall grid efficiency.

Jinapor emphasized that the short shutdown was a calculated decision based on technical advice. Running thermal plants on liquid fuels during the downtime was ruled out due to operational complexities and the limited duration of the outage.

“It involves changing nozzles, it involves a lot of work, and so if we are going off for about four to six hours, you don’t risk transitioning to liquid fuel only to come back to gas,” he said.

The Ministry has pledged to mitigate the impact of the disruption, although details on contingency measures remain limited.

Separately, Mr. Jinapor disclosed a new commercial oil discovery by ENI, and noted that Tullow Oil intends to increase its investment in Ghana’s upstream oil sector, signaling growing international confidence in the country’s hydrocarbon prospects.

Source:TheDotNews