WAGPCo says seabed line maintenance running smoothly
- Resumption of gas supplies remains as scheduled
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Line maintenance operation launched on February 7 by the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAGPCo) Limited is running without hitches, keeping hopes high that natural gas from Nigeria will resume flowing to the regional market in just a few weeks.
General Manager in charge of Corporate Affairs at WAGPCo, Dr Isaac Adjei Doku, told our correspondent that the first phase of the project which involves draining the channel of gas condensate and flushing of sundry effluent was currently in advanced stage.
He confirmed that the first set of foam Pipeline Inspection Gauges (PIGs) have already traversed 569 kilometres of 20” subsea conduit from Badagry in Nigeria through Cotonou in Benin Republic and Lome in Togo to Takoradi in Ghana.
According to him, “the first pig sent on Friday 11am GMT arrived last Monday at 7pm GMT; the second pig launched at 11pm GMT last Monday arrived last Friday at 09:30 hours GMT; while the third pig was launch last Friday and expected on Monday.”
“So all is going as planned,” Dr Doku stated.
The Oracle Today reports that WAGPCo launched off its scheduled offshore line maintenance programme to guarantee the integrity of systems that channel natural gas from Nigeria and Ghana to the regional energy market.
The company along with its contractors loaded the first foam Pipeline Inspection Gauge (PIG) pig into the line from its Lagos Beach Compressor Station at Badagry to mark the comprehensive pipeline cleaning, inspection and valve replacement maintenance activities.
The pigs which would take estimated four days under carefully measured gas pressure to arrive Takoradi in Ghana are designed to clean out and inspect the pipeline wall for corrosion and sundry wears. The information gleaned from the final intelligent pig would assist the company’s maintenance crew determine possible repairs.
Dr Doku stated that the ongoing maintenance activities cover the offshore section of the pipeline stretching from Badagry in Nigeria to Aboadze in Ghana. It is follows the conclusion of the maintenance on the onshore section of the pipeline from Itoki to Badagry in Nigeria.
Scope of maintenance work to be undertaken during the period also covers replacement of faulty subsea valves that have been determined to be defective.
Most of the activities would take place offshore and at WAPCo’s Lagos Beach Compressor Station located at Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria; and at the Takoradi Regulating and Metering Station in Ghana.
The major maintenance activities which began on February 5, are expected to be completed by March 2, 2025. And within the period, gas transportation services from Nigeria to Cotonou in Benin Republic, Lomé in Togo, and Tema in Ghana will be temporary suspended.
Also affected is the reverse flow transportation of natural gas from Ghana’s Western Region to Tema in the east of the country.
An average of about 85,000MMSCF/d of gas would be required to push the pigs through the Pipeline, and the initial pig from Nigeria to Takoradi would push existing volumes of gas in the pipeline in a linear direction to be discharged and utilized at Takoradi in Ghana where all the pigs introduced at Lagos are to be received.
Thus, two companies have been engaged by WAPCo to work with in-house technical team in handling the two aspects of the maintenance project. Whereas Topline is engaged in pigging, Hydrodive would stand by for the subsea valve replacements.
A representative of Topline Limited which is running the initial phase of the maintenance project, Ms Prudence, told The Oracle Today at the just concluded Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (SAIPEC) that the company was putting every effort in job to guarantee the integrity of the delivery timelines.
She boasted that Topline would remain ahead of its clients’ expectations on the quality of material and services, in addition to speed of delivery.
