<<Print>>

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) on Wednesday said the stringent measures it instituted to curb smuggling of products has drastically reduced diversion from 30 million litres last year to two million litres as at August, this year.

It said the reduction represented about 93 per cent decline and saved the nation millions of Ghana Cedis, which would have gone to private pockets.

Mr Hassan Tampuli, the Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, who announced this at a stakeholders’ meeting of petroleum downstream sector in Accra, said the collaboration between the Authority and the security agencies had helped to impound 43 bulk road vehicles and canoes for smuggling petroleum products.

He said some of the canoes impounded were designed to carry about one million tonnes of fuel, while one canoe carried about 120,000 litres of petroleum products.

He said the Authority had confiscated the petroleum products and assured that it would make sure all the relevant taxes and levies were paid to the government, while the impounded canoes were burnt to serve as a deterrent to others.

He said a Committee was constituted in June this year to review the culprits’ cases and to develop guidelines to curb illegal fuel activities and propose measures for disposal of all confiscated canoes and vehicles.

That notwithstanding, Mr Tampuli said, the Authority was poised to offer protection to genuine businesses in the industry and assured that it would work with all stakeholders to expose the fraudulent ones, who were desperately trying to undermine the decency of the industry.

He said over the past year, the petroleum downstream industry had undergone major revolution, which called for more strategic approach to ensure efficient operations of the sector.

Therefore, he said, the Authority had instituted stringent measures to curb illegal activities in the sector, especially export of petroleum products to the neighbouring countries.
He announced that the high failure rate amongst retail stations averaged 6.2 per cent and 4.9 per cent in 2016 and 2017 had been reduced to less than one per cent as at July this year due to the stringent measures it instituted.

He said the Authority had discovered that some petroleum products from Togo meant for transit to Mali were being dumped in Sankase and Tatale in the northern and assured that it would collaborate with the security agencies to arrest the perpetrators.

Mr Tampuli said it was refreshing that such stakeholders’ engagement would help them to formulate and implement innovative strategies and policies that would ensure the petroleum downstream industry remained efficient and profitable while consumers received best value for money.

He said the October 16-31 petroleum pricing window saw some upward adjustment to petroleum products, which resulted in public outcry and, therefore, entreated players in the industry to educate and sensitise the public to understand the mechanisms of a deregulated market.

He said following the implementation of the Price Deregulation Policy in July 2015, the responsibility of setting ex-pump prices of petroleum products shifted from the NPA to petroleum service providers- Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) and Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).

Mr Tampuli said the only petroleum products whose prices were still determined by the NPA included; residual fuel oil, pre-mix fuel, aviation fuel, gas oil for the mines, marine gas oil and gas oil rig.