Manning’s dream creates firsts for NGC in Ghana
Trinidad and Tobago
FIFTEEN years after it was first announced, Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s initiative to link T&T to West Africa, through the National Gas Company (NGC), is finally getting off the ground.
Wholly State-owned NGC is now celebrating a number of firsts in Ghana: it is the first time it was asked to produce a critical piece of equipment,; that equipment was for an international company, the Takoradi Distribution Station (TDS) in Ghana; the first time such a project was conceived and executed virtually and it marks NGC’s first steps into selling technical services.
The project started in December 2020, during the pandemic, when the country’s borders were closed.
According to Winston Mohammed, NCG’s senior manager of projects, the company was asked to tender based on a technical services agreement which was signed years ago.
Mohammed explained that the NGC was asked to submit a bid and it was successful in its tender to design, procure, construct and install a pressure regulator skid in Ghana.
That critical equipment is required to get Ghana’s power plant to manage its flow of natural gas.
Technical capability
He pointed out that Ghana has already invested in a pipeline infrastructure and a natural gas liquids plant.
“There’s one element of that infrastructure that was missing and needed to be completed,” he told the Express Business in an interview last week.
“What the pressure regulator skid allows them to do is to take the natural gas and reduce the pressure by which it is being distributed or transported. And then it’s to get to the required amount that the power plant can use. So it’s a critical connection point now between the supply of the gas and getting the power plants started up,” he said.
“NGC’s engineering, drafting and computer-aided design were all used. We actually did the design using NGC people, our supply chain to procure all the materials, and then we used T&T contractors to fabricate the skid,” he said.
Mohammed described the design and fabrication of the skid as the evolution of the company’s technical capability from developing a pipeline infrastructure to technical services.
He said the project cost under US$2 million and had to be delayed for a few months because of supply challenges.
However, NGC was able to meet its March extension and the skid is now completed and has been shipped to Ghana for installation.
He said the project used local talent.
“I would say indirectly and directly, the project would have affected at least 50 people. The fabrication was done in Point Lisas by TrinWell Contracting,” he said.
Mohammed was keen to point out that prior to the onset of the pandemic, delivery of such a project in Ghana would have involved site visits to assess as-built conditions, collaboration with teams on the ground in Ghana to finalise design specifications and direct oversight and management of local contractors during the construction, installation and commissioning phases.
He said the team used virtual meeting tools and relevant software applications to gather data, review designs, and collaborate with their Ghanaian counterparts, who were on-site to eventually complete a design that secured the necessary approvals.
He said the project leveraged technology to progress engineering workflows, using 3D computer-aided design to communicate the design and test options for improvement.
The NGC executive said the company used Microsoft SharePoint to share technical drawings with the client and to facilitate documentation of comments, input, review and quality control. Site data was supplemented by online videos, which served to provide another level of quality assurance on the as-built specifications that would guide the project.
“I think it must never be underestimated what a significant challenge it was to deliver this project. We could have said no, but we took it on, given that the Government of Ghana absolutely needs this.The power plant is already built so it’s important that this piece of infrastructure is finished to ensure they get the power on the grid,” he said.
Start small
Mohammed is satisfied that the NGC’s first such project has been completed.
“I’m a firm believer in starting small. I think when you start small, you learn. Capital projects have a lot of risk. Things do go wrong. There’s supply chain risk, there’s construction risk, etc. So what we want to do is focus our strategy in our area of strength which is natural gas. So we certainly want to involve ourselves in the natural gas infrastructure worldwide. This is why one of our subsidiaries, PPPGL, is expanding in the natural gas liquids area globally. So we certainly want to expand in the services area but, for us, where we see our value is around the natural gas infrastructure,” he said.
He said the company is looking along the value chain to expand.
“Once you’re in the natural gas business, the entire value chain, when it makes commercial sense for us to actually invest in that chain, we will do so. And we should be able to have technical services meaning to design, to construct and to deliver projects. That’s actually a great strength because it allows us to seek strategic partnerships with players in the industry, where we can position ourselves for growth in the future,” he said.
“For example, one area that we’re starting to do development work on is what we call small-scale LNG. Small-scale LNG is like a virtual pipeline. Instead of building a pipeline between Trinidad and Grenada or Barbados, St Lucia or the Dominican Republic, what we want to do now is to build the infrastructure that allows us to transport the gas and the form of LNG and move it to different markets just like you would fuel in pipelines. So for us technical services may be designing and installing the infrastructure that allows us to secure parts of the gas value chain, particularly in a low carbon world,” he explained.
He said in addition to the Ghana work, NGC has been working very closely with ETECK.
He said the NGC has partnered with ETECK to install gas infrastructure to the Phoenix Park Industrial Estate and the Factory Road Estate.
“NGC is paid for providing those technical services. Both of them are under US$2 million each. What’s exciting for us, for example, with the Phoenix Park Estate, it is a green estate, this is one in which the intent is to start simulating and stimulating a lower carbon type future there.
“So, for us, it’s exciting because we’re using our engineering and procurement and construction capability to design and getting paid for doing it. We have a good portfolio that we’ve developed for technical services. And maybe that’s where we get a little more confident that this is something that we can do going forward. Or take on, you know, bigger work,” he said.
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