The long awaited West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), running from Nigeria to Ghana, Togo and Benin, came online on 23 December 2007. The project will provide much needed feedstock to Ghana, Togo and Benin, a market for Nigerian gas and could eventually help to end routine gas flaring in the Gulf of Guinea. The scheme should have yet more important implications in terms of encouraging regional integration and promoting stability. However, attacks by militants from the Niger Delta are becoming increasingly audacious and there is a possibility that the pipeline could come under attack. The project is owned and operated by WAGPCo, which is in turn owned by ChevronTexaco West African Gas Pipeline Ltd (36.7 per cent), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC; 25 per cent), Shell Overseas Holdings Limited (18 per cent), Volta River Authority of Ghana (16.3 per cent), Beninoise de Gaz S.A. (two per cent) and Togolaise de Gaz S.A. (two per cent).

Gas will be collected from Nigerian fields and transported via the established pipeline from Escravos to Alagbado, northwest of Lagos. It will then be piped 56 km to a compressor station at Lagos Beach, where the 569 km WAGP runs westwards about 20 km offshore and parallel to the West African coast. Four spur pipelines connect the West African Gas Pipeline to delivery points on the coast: Cotonou in Benin, Lome in Togo, and Tema and Takoradi in Ghana. The pipeline will have initial transmission capacity of 200 million cubic feet a day (cf/d), but this could be increased to 450 million cf/d through the installation of more gas compression infrastructure. Ghana is expected to purchase 90 per cent of all gas supplied. In the first instance, almost all gas will be used in power generation, although the Ghanaian government hopes reliable gas supplies could encourage the development of non-power sector industry. Ghana was a net power exporter until the mid 1990s, but a lack of investment in new generating capacity curtailed exports to Cote d'Ivoire, while continued reliance on the 1,020 megawatt (MW) Akosombo hydro scheme made the country vulnerable to droughts. The power supply situation should improve markedly during the next few years, owing to the West African Gas Pipeline as well as the development of the 400 MW Bui hydro project by Chinese company Sino Hydro at a cost of USD622 million.