Petroleum retailers in Ghana threaten to boycott fuel with a temperature above 20 degrees

The Ghana Petroleum Retailers Association has urged the Bulk Oil Distributors and oil depots to abide by a directive to keep the temperature of their petroleum products at 20 degrees Celsius before it is transported.

The Association also urged the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to enforce the directive on fuel temperature it has given the Bulk Oil Distributors and oil depots.

The NPA recently said that BDCs must not exceed the given temperature. This directive was to help reduce the losses in the transport of fuel.

The directive was that all loading depots are to comply with the compensation at 20 degrees Celsius for all products. To comply with this instruction, depots were asked to install temperature compensated meters to meet the 20 degree Celsius product compensation at the loading center.

The NPA explained that this is because as the temperature of the fuel increases, the initial quantity will be lost after it drops.

However, the Chairman of the Ghana Petroleum Retailers Association Commodore E.M Mensah told Accra-based Citi FM that BDCs are flouting the directive causing retailers to lose thousands of cedis daily.

He said members of the association are threatening to boycott petroleum products that have temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius.

“In case I don’t succeed in restraining my members, Let us picture a situation where one day retailers also say they will not accept petroleum products with a temperature higher than 20 degrees Celsius. There will be a mess in this country. Let us try to avoid such a situation.”

Other stakeholders including the Ghana National Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union have also appealed to the NPA to immediately enforce the 20 degrees temperature level requirement for fuel before they are transported.

According to the union, its members are losing about a million cedis every day due to the poor enforcement of the directive.

Chairman of the Union, George Nyaunu said if their concern is not addressed, they may be forced to meet the Energy Minister for a redress.

“The Energy Minister has given us assurances and we hope the right authorities will work on the assurance. Our members cannot continue to take that cost. It is too much”

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), is also threatening to go to court coming Monday (January 27, 2020) if the depots do not go by the NPA directive.