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Inadequate supply of fuel products: Our liftings from BOST have reduced drastically, say tanker drivers

The Ghana National Petroleum Tanker Drivers’ Union in the Ashanti Region say about 80% of its members have not been working for the past year

Reports say the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited, (BOST) depots around the country still lack adequate supply of fuel products. 

Last week, the company issued a publication to debunk what it says were rumours making rounds that tanker divers, have petitioned President, Akufo Addo to intervene in the operations of the company which is taking a nosedive. 

But days after the publication by BOST, tanker drivers in Kumasi where the company’s major receiving depot is located are still painting a gloomy picture of fuel supply from the country’s strategic installation. 

Speaking on the Asaase Business News on Thursday (5 August) Edmund Baba, the vice-chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Tanker Drivers’ Union for Ashanti, Ahafo Western North and the Bono Regions said, “As we told you last week, it is still the same…we have been with BOST for a long time but this time the liftings of BOST have reduced drastically to the extent that hitherto we used to have at least 50 trucks a day and a maximum of 250 trucks a day.

“As I talk to you now, the highest loading that comes to Kumasi depot is about 25 to 30. So we don’t understand why it should be like that. And for that reason about 80% of our members have not been working for the past one year,” Baba added.

Grave situation

Meanwhile, some industry players have also confirmed that the situation at BOST with regards to maintaining strategic reserve is grave than is perceived.

Nana Amoase VII, the executive director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES) said, “Unless the definition of strategic fuel reserve has been modified to mean something else, the IES can boldly state that BOST doesn’t have even a single day worth of petroleum product reserve. A two-week petroleum reserve means the company is holding volumes in excess of 200 million litres of just petrol and diesel. 

“Levying is a lazy way of raising capital and that’s what BOST has resorted to over the last 18 months. They have not found any innovative ways of generating the required cash flows for their operations. Levying may not be a sustainable way of leaving up to your mandate because it places extra burdens on citizens,” he added.

Duncan Amoah, the executive secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) Ghana, said “we do not think that the margins we contribute to BOST is only for maintaining their operations. We do expect BOST to keep a strategic stock. That is exactly what BOST has been set up to do for Ghanaians such that in times that world prices go higher, we should be able to fall on them.”

President Akufo-Addo is yet to name new management for the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited in his second term of administration.

It is not clear whether the current management at BOST will continue to manage the affairs of this strategic national entity.

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