Needless finger pointing won’t keep the lights on — Herbert Krapa tells John Jinapor

Former Minister for Energy under the Akufo-Addo administration, Herbert Krapa, has taken a swap at the Co-chair of the Akufo-Addo – Mahama transition team’s sub-committee on Energy and Natural Resources, John Jinapor, for claiming that “massive load shedding looms as Ghana’s fuel stock depletes.”

In a post on his Facebook wall on Tuesday, 7 January 2025, Mr Krapa, reacting to Mr John Jinapor’s claims, pointed out that Mr Jinapor is completely wrong. He noted that the new NDC government needs to get to work to keep the lights on, just like the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration did under President Akufo-Addo over the last eight years.

“I have read a statement from Hon. John Jinapor (MP), Co-Chairman of the Transition Team sub-committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in which he claims that “massive load shedding looms as Ghana’s fuel stock depletes” and seeks to blame His Excellency President Akufo-Addo and his government for it.

“Mr Jinapor is wrong. Load shedding does not “loom”. It is caused either by technical or emergency power generation issues or a lack of competence in managing the power sector. Mr. Jinapor seems to be haunted clearly by the latter,” Herbert Krapa’s post read.

“By the time of leaving office, President Akufo-Addo’s government left in stock light crude oil, which Cenpower currently generates power with, whilst AKSA continues to take delivery of heavy fuel oil which it generates power with. This fact is easily verifiable with a phone call to both power plants.

“The responsibility of the new administration is to not only procure more liquid fuel to keep the lights on whenever liquid fuel becomes required to complement gas supply but also plan competently to avert power supply disruptions. We did it, and they can do it too if they can,” Krapa’s post further read.

“The NDC government should get to work as we did, the reason we kept the lights on for eight years, regardless of the difficult times, and stop the needless finger-pointing. That is not how we kept the lights on,” the post by the former energy minister concluded.

Jinapor claims

In his own post today, Tuesday, 7 January 2025, John Jinapor claimed that “as a result of this unpatriotic and reckless decision, Ghanaians will experience serious load shedding during the period of the pipeline maintenance and pigging exercise scheduled by WAPCo on the West African Gas Pipeline from Nigeria to Ghana, from 20 January to 16 February 2025.

“Today, as President Mahama prepares to assume office, our checks from the system operator (GRIDCO) have revealed that Ghana has less than 2 days of stock for both Distillate Fuel and Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) with no plans put in place by the outgoing administration to restock the depleting fuel stocks despite assurances by government officials to the transition team.

“The Ministry of Energy confirmed at the joint transition team meetings that WAPCo had originally scheduled to begin the pipeline cleanup and inspection exercise in October 2024 aimed at protecting the integrity and assuring safe operations of WAPCo’s offshore pipeline. However, the Akufo Addo-led government deliberately coerced WAPCo to postpone the exercise to 20 January 2025 under the guise of requiring time to secure the needed parcels of liquid fuel to augment any gas shortfall during the maintenance period.

“Indeed, at the meeting of the subcommittee of the joint transition team on Energy and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Energy gave numerous assurances that, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and other key players in the country’s gas-to-power sector, adequate provision had been put in place to mitigate the impact on the country’s grid system and ensure a reliable and stable power supply during the shutdown,” John Jinapor’s post read.

“It is, however, shocking to note that the outgoing administration has not ordered a single parcel of liquid fuel to replenish the depleting stock despite knowing the implications of their reckless and politically motivated decision. It is expected, although regrettable, that the country’s energy sector is headed towards the path of paralysis by dint of this reckless decision.

“Indeed, the nation is expected to experience a massive power supply deficit of about 1000 MW from the 20th of January 2025 when the pigging exercise commences. For the record, it takes about 4 to 6 weeks, on average, to order a parcel of Light Crude Oil (LCO) and another 4 weeks for the treatment of the same before usage. As a result, it could take about 10 weeks before fuel is readily available to increase power generation output within the Tema enclave,” Jinapor further stated in his post.