Ghana’s VRA spends $55m on crude oil every 2 weeks

The Volta River Authority (VRA) has disclosed that it spends about $55 million on light crude oil to run thermal plants every two weeks. Bernard Kofi Ellis, Director, Planning and Business Development, VRA, who revealed this recently, said it cost VRA a lot of money to run thermal plants on fuel.

VRA face difficulties in purchasing fuel to run thermal plants with the authority relying on banks for credit facilities. VRA does not get the required money from the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC).

Kofi Ellis said that in 2013, government gave the Authority $600m to purchase light crude oil when the situation became critical.

VRA is currently sourcing for gas to run its thermal plants since it is less expensive and more efficient. In view of that, Ellis said Ghana will continue to pursue Nigeria for gas in spite of the current difficulties.

Kofi Ellis said the Nigeria government wants to improve its power sector by providing its citizens with uninterrupted power supply. ‘This has accounted for the difficulties Ghana is having with Nigeria to supply us with gas, but we will continue to pursue them,’ he said.

Kofi Ellis said government was also in talks with other independent gas processing companies in Nigeria to supply Ghana with gas.

Ghanaians are currently undergoing a severe load-shedding exercise characterized by unannounced power outage across the country. The Authority gave assurance that the erratic power supply situation was likely to improve by the end of June when most of the faulty power units would be back in service.