Sunon Asogli Power Limited, an independent power producer, has appealed to government to offer it some compensation for the losses it incurred as a result of the damage to the West African Gas pipeline, which supplied gas from Nigeria to power its plants.
According to Sunon Asogli Power Limited, the delay in resumption of gas supply from Nigeria to power its thermal plants had caused the company to lose about US$50 million.
Li Xiaohai, Chairman of the company, who made this known to journalists yesterday in Tema, said “the cost incurred for not operating for close to one year is too huge and therefore the company cannot bear it alone.
“We are therefore in discussions with government in that regard and we hope that we will reach an agreement to mitigate the cost. Government must give us some compensation. It will not be fair if we are not compensated.”
He said, “We were ready to supply power to the public but there was no gas for us to do so and we feel very disappointed. It was very frustrating.”
Operations at the Sunon Asogli Power Company came to a halt in August, 2012 as a result of the dam¬age to the pipeline from Nigeria.
The damage to the pipeline led to the load shedding exercise, which lasted for more than 10 months.
The company is jointly funded by the Shenzhan Energy Group Limited and the China Africa Development Fund.
It employs about 80 expatriates, as well as 50 Ghanaians directly and provides indirect jobs to 200 Ghanaians.
Sunon Asogli provided around 200 megawatts of power to the national grid until the West Africa Gas Pipeline was damaged.
“We still want to deliver the second phase of our project, which is a 360-megawatt plant. We hope to begin construction work soon,” Li Xiaohai said.
