Kribi Thermal Plant Gas Supply At Optimum

Pipeline Steering and Monitoring Committee members visited the gas treatment centre and transmission sites on Saturday, November 2, 2013.

The production of natural gas by Perenco at the Sanaga platform some 17 km from Bipaga and the treatment of the gas at Bipaga for sale to the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (NHC) for the supply of the Kribi thermal plant has been going on uninterrupted, stakeholders have said.

Perenco engineers working at the Bipaga gas treatment centre say they are working round the clock and supplying the requested natural gas to the Mpolongwe terminal plant, some 18 km from Bipaga. Meanwhile, NHC engineers at the Mpolongwe receiving end also say they are working tooth and nail to supply the needed quantity of gas for the production of electricity. Target is producing 216 megawatts of electricity to bridge the demand/supply shortfall in the country. It is extensible to 330 megawatts.

Talking to members of the Pipeline Steering and Monitoring Committee who went discovering the workings of the Bipaga centre and Mpolongwe on Saturday November 2, the engineers assured that all is well in terms of production, treatment and transmission. All security measures, they disclosed, have also been put in place to pre-empt any eventuality. According to Maurice Bibeh, Chief of the Perenco Bipaga gas treatment centre, who took members of the Committee and pressmen round the centre, the gas produced in the Sanaga platform is treated there and conditioned at Bipaga before piping to Mpolongwe.

He explained the channels through which the produced gas is treated and how it moves from Bipaga to Mpolongwe. From March 16, 2012 when work started on the transmission pipes through February 22, 2013 when gas was put on the pipes (Gazoduc) to February 25 when consumption of the gas started, Mr Bibeh and his staff said, they have been working relentlessly to meet up with the conditions as per its contract with NHC. "Perenco equipment are well adapted to produce and transmit the gas needed by NHC for the thermal plant," he said.

To Rodrigue Essama who spoke on behalf of the NHC Site Manager, there is systematic cleaning of the pipes at least every two months and security test on the equipment at least every three months to be doubly sure of security. This ensures the optimal production and treatment of gas quality like methane, ethane, propane, butane among others.

Asanga Frankline, Production Operator at the Mpolongwe-Bipaga sites, said the centre that receives the already treated gas from Perenco for onward transmission has a pick receiver with equipment that clear the pipe of impurities. "We have a pipeline of almost 18 km and the picks clear off any impurities along the line. We are functioning normally and optimally and we make sure that we furnish the quantity of gas that is needed," he said. The steering committee members expressed satisfaction with the state-of-the-art equipment they saw and the functioning.