Pay outstanding electricity bills or face ejection- GAF

The Nine oil companies operating at the Takoradi Air-Force Base are to pay all outstanding electricity bills with immediate effect or face ejection from the base, the Chief of Air Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Air Vice-Marshal Michael Samson-Oje, has said.

Air Vice-Marshal Samson Oje gave this directive in Takoradi on Tuesday at a meeting with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the nine oil companies which includes Tullow Oil, Komos Energy and HESS.

The meeting was to resolve the recent impasse of non-payment of electricity bills by these oil companies.

Air Vice-Marshal Samson-Oje, indicated that the Ghana Air-Force would not condone any more non-payment of electricity bills by these companies and as such would not hesitate to eject any company in default of bills from the Air-Force Base.

" I have authorized the base commander that if the ECG complains of non-payment, he should see to it that the defaulter is disconnected; and if you go and connect it yourself then it means you are engaging in an illegality, I will eject you within forty-eight hours", he warned.

He said the companies should negotiate with the ECG on the terms of payment without any delay in order to maintain the harmonious relationship they ( oil companies) have with Air Force and the ECG.

The Chief of Air Staff said it was untrue that the Air-Force was charging the oil companies for electricity and was using the money to carryout its operations.

He said the Air-Force do not have such an arrangement with the companies, adding that since the base attention has been drawn to the fact that the companies were owing the ECG several millions of Ghana Cedis, it would assist the ECG to retrieve those monies and ensure that defaulters are dealt with accordingly.

He said the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) through the Government of Ghana requested for land at the base some years back in their quest to prospect for oil.

After completing their prospects, he said, the GNPC left its installations which afterward were being used by the base.

He said Kosmos approached the base to use part of the facility but they were directed to pass such a request through GNPC which it obliged.

He said thereafter, Tullow Oil and the rest followed but all these companies were given certain conditions to fulfill such as constructing their own access roads and putting up their own platform for every project which was being undertaken.

Air Vice-Marshal Oje, the Air Force had enjoyed a good relationship with the oil companies, stating that the $1.8 million fuel depot constructed at the base by Tullow Oil and the recent sponsoring of 19 Air-Force officers to train as pilots in the United State of America (USA) were just a few of the benefits the Air-Force had derived from such a relationship.

He said it was important that such a relationship be maintained and therefore advised the companies to resolve their bills payment issue with the ECG in order to continue such good relationship at the base.