President John Dramani Mahama is expected to break ground on the country’s third gas processing plant in November, Energy Minister Dr John Abdulai Jinapor has said.
Speaking at the opening session of African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa, on 13 October, alongside Andy Inglis, chief executive of US oil firm Kosmos Energy, Dr Jinapor said Ghana needed more gas to meet rising electricity demand.
“We have two gas processing plants, one onshore, one offshore. Our demand is increasing. We are building 1,200 megawatts of our own domestic electricity infrastructure. But we need gas, and gas is critical. So this November, we expect that the President will cut the sod for the construction of the third gas processing plant.”
He said he hoped to tell next year’s conference that construction was under way and nearing completion. “That would be a great achievement for me,” he intimated.
More gas would also cut Ghana’s spending on imported liquid fuels for its power stations.
At a separate AEW session, Dr Jinapor said Ghana had cut its purchases of liquid fuel for power from eight cargoes to two, saving about $500m, according to the African Energy Chamber, which organises the conference. He said Ghana expects to stop buying them next year.
The 1,200MW project is a state-owned, gas-fired plant planned for Kafodzidzi-Abrobeano in the Central Region, with a first phase of 600MW due to be commissioned in 2028.
Ghana has endured repeated bouts of rolling blackouts, known locally as dumsor, over the past decade. But Dr Jinapor said higher gas volumes had kept power supply steady over the past year, and that public “agitations” over outages had “gone down tremendously”.
Pressed on dumsor by the session’s moderator, African Energy Chamber executive chairman NJ Ayuk, he was emphatic.
“The thing about Ghana is that you cannot dribble Ghanaians. They won’t take anything less.We are seeing consistent, reliable supply of power in Ghana. We are not just self-sufficient, but we are exporting power. And for me, that is remarkable.”
He put the results down to “policy credibility”, certainty, predictability and “a very sound regulatory framework”, as well as working with partners “such as Kosmos and co”.
Oil output up 30%
Dr Jinapor also said Ghana’s oil production had risen by about 30% this year, after almost five years of decline. He said this meant the government was “earning more revenue, more money for investment”, and thanked the partners in the Jubilee oil field, “Kosmos in particular, for pushing that agenda”.
Dr Jinapor said a $2bn framework agreement Ghana signed with the Jubilee partners last year had since become “a tangible agreement”.
Dr Jinapor urged African governments to process more of the continent’s oil and gas at home. He said Africa exports about three-quarters of the crude oil it produces, and about half of its gas.
“I hold the view that we must process our indigenous gas here in Africa. Ghana is doing it,” he said. “We are processing every molecule of gas in Ghana, and we are converting that molecule of gas to produce electricity to boost industrialization.”
