Unless member countries take urgent steps to
salvage the operations of West Africa’s multibillion dollar regional natural
gas transmission company, the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) their
investments in the venture may have to go down the drain in a matter of time.
They are currently being
threatened by a huge backlog of monies owed it by its customers for gas
supplied to them, as well as a dip in gas volumes allocated to the company, its
officials have said.
The company raised the alarm
on Tuesday in Abuja when the Committee of Ministers of the West African Gas
Pipeline Authority (WAGP) met. It explained that it was in a precarious
financial state and that its continued commercial survival was now in doubt.
It also stated that it is
now unable to undertake critical commercial operations because of these
developments.
Nigeria through the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has a 24.9 per cent stake in WAPCo, and
is the second largest shareholder after Chevron West African Gas Pipeline
Limited with 36.9 per cent.
WAPCo’s Managing Director,
Mr. Walt Perez said during the meeting of the ministers that the company was in
serious operational mess due largely to these issues.
Perez also said the
company’s cash flow was dwindling from these developments. He called on the
ministers to come up with solutions to keep the company up.
He said WAGP had for a while
remained technically capable of transporting gas volumes up to contractual
levels, but that many receipts have within these times remained below
contracted levels and have now built up to put the commercial viability of WAGP
in significant doubt.
He stated that the problem
with low gas volumes was exacerbated by a force majeure that was declared in
2013 and which still remains in effect today.
He said this development has
seen the company’s unpaid invoices shoot up to $104 million that is due to
WAPCo’s account, plus an additional $75 million to N-Gas.
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