Sep 19, 2012 at 12:03pm

The CEO of the Ghana National Gas Company, Dr. George Sipa Yankey, has dismissed assertions that SINOPEC, lead engineers for the Ghana Gas project, short changed Ghana in its contract with the country.

There are reports that SINOPEC treated Ghana unfairly by at least $140 million by overpricing the liquefied petroleum gas processing plant it purchased for the processing of gas from the Jubilee Field.

There are also allegations that the plant cost $40 million more than another plant which is superior to the one acquired by the company.

However, speaking to Citi Business News, Dr Yankey said the allegations were unfounded.

“It is unfortunate there are some people in Ghana who talk about things they either do not know or know very little about. The total cost of the project is $150 m. SINOPEC had an amount of $998 m for this and we had to negotiate till they brought it down to $150 m saving this country over $200m,” he said.

He further mentioned that the price was arrived at by Ghana Gas based on “industry knowledge and experience of colleagues who have worked with the Ghana Outline so the figure we arrived at is far below what SINOPEC would want to charge us.”

Dr. Yankey added that fortunately for them, they had an initial project in collated agreement “so we had to bring them back to the original agreement. This was done before they came to understand the full extent of the project”.

Dr. Yankey said Ghana had rather made gains following its contract with SINOPEC.

“According to the gas plan that we had, there was no need for any treatment……Ghana Gas has saved the country more money than it had to pay therefore I am going to believe that either people are ignorant or just being mischievous. Anybody who doubts the integrity of what we are doing should come and audit our books.”



By: Citifmonline.com/Ghana