BOST fuel saga: Movenpiina sold 2 million litres of ‘dirty fuel’ to an unlicensed company

The brouhaha surrounding the sale of some contaminated fuel to some companies remains with the latest disclosure of a transaction made by Movenpiina oil to another unlincensed petroleum firm called Macwest.

A letter signed by the Managing Director of BOST cited Movenpiina to have sold of two million litres of contaminated oil to Macwest, two weeks before the sale of its consignment to Zup Oil.

The letter read, “This is a request for your outfit to release two million (2,000,000) litres of contaminated products purchased from your company at APD to Macwest, a customer of our company.”

There have been calls from several individuals and institutions for investigations to be launched to determine the facts of the issue since it was disclosed. Minority in Parliament added their voice by calling for the immediate interdiction of the Managing Director of BOST, Alfred Obeng Boateng.

The Energy Ministry constituted a committee consequently to probe the sale of the fuel.

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA), after complaining that it had not licensed the two firms, threatened to take legal action against the companies while investigations continue into the matter.

The authority following investigations on the issue, made some findings, below are a few of them;

1. BOST had at their premises, 5 million litres of an off-spec product. This is alleged to have resulted from BOST accidentally discharging gasoline into a diesel storage tank wich already contained some diesel sometime in January 2017.

2. The tank containing the off-spec product was subsequently isolated from normal marketing and sales operations whilst investigations into the incident was initiated by BOST.

3. Based on the recommended disposal options by a Committee that investigated the incident, BOST opted to sell off the off-spec product to a company known as Movenpinna Energy.

4. Subsequently, BOST notified the Ghana Revenue Authority of their intention to dispense of the 5 million litres of the off-spec product from its storage. The process of evacuation commenced on 20th June, 2017. So far, the quantity of the off-spec product evacuated from the depot is 471,00 litres as indicated below:

On 20th June, 2017: 240,000 litres was evacuated

On 21st June, 2017, 231,000 litres was evacuated (the stated quantities were loaded into ten Bulk Road Vehicles)

5. On 23rd June, 2017, additional 380,00 litres of the off-spec product was loaded into eight BRVs at the depot. However, the dispatch of these BRVs from the depot was halted on the instructions of the NPA when information about the evacuation got to the NPA. This is because BOST failed to notify the NPA and acquire prior authorization before commencing the evacuation of the off-spec product. Officials of the NPA visited the BOST depot on 27th June, 2017 and confirmed that the 8 BRVs were still stationed at the depot with their contents intact. Samples were taken from all 8 BRVs as well as the isolated BOST storage tank for analysis.

6. The NPA was able to discover the location where 6 of the BRVs discharged the off-spec product the carried from the BOST depot. This was made possible by the NPA’s BRV tracking system.

7. Officials from the NPA visited the location (Zup Oil) at Gulf-City, Tema on 27th June, 2017. Documentation presented to the officials suggested that all ten BRVs were offloaded at the facility, however, this is subject to confirmation. In this regard the NPA is conducting further investigations to determine the actual quantity and quality of the products received at the facility of Zup Oil.