Abstract
This study aims to contribute to industry discussion on gas utilization opportunities available to Ghana. Specifically, it will analyze Ghana's existing natural gas plans. i.e., the Gas Master Plan analyze possible opportunities and associated challenges and finally propose sources of finance for gas sector projects.
In order to discover opportunities of natural gas utilization as well as challenges that come in the course of implementation, data was sourced from secondary sources as well. Benchmarking was also done using the natural gas journeys of three (3) case study countries: Nigeria, China, and the United Kingdom and a comparative analysis compared their natural gas journeys in terms of policy direction, natural gas utilization, infrastructure development and challenges encountered vis a vis the natural gas journey of Ghana.
The analysis showed that various opportunities existed for natural gas utilization in the areas of industrial power generation, LNG export, CNG, Fertilizer and bauxite production. Various challenges such as lack of human and technical capacity, sector debt, regulatory issues, pricing issues, security of supply and others plagued most natural gas economies.
These findings suggest that an ‘armory’ of opportunities exist for natural gas utilization in Ghana. However, the implementation of these utilization options is contingent on the development of proper policy instruments and extensive investment in infrastructure. The country should also be conscious of bottlenecks that may hinder natural gas utilization efforts.
