Stop treating OMCs like ‘monsters’ and ‘criminals’ - Agyeman-Duah

Members of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMC) are mad with so-called experts in the oil and gas industry for castigating them following last Saturday’s gas explosion at Atomic Junction.

According to them, these so-called experts are hurting the industry by throwing dust into the eyes of the public with falsehood, half truths and inaccurate information.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday barely a week after the Atomic Junction gas explosion incident, the CEO of the AOMC Kwaku Agyemang–Duah said such flammable utterances, innuendos and castigations have the tendency to kill initiatives and denigrate the Oil Marketing Companies/Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers who have invested in these retail outlets and have been rendering very meaningful services to the country at large.

“We duly acknowledge that we have the prime responsibility of making our facilities safe and secure for our numerous customers who we have served with the supply of LPG (gas) for about 30 years and petrol and diesel for 100 years.

“One would have expect that in this tough time, we will seek to be united as a collective force to correct and prevent the reoccurrence of such incidents, as safety is a shared responsibility for operators,regulators,agencies,custohe general public and the government,” he added.

According to him, “The unparalleled marauding, demonstrations against some legitimate retail outlets and hitting the panic button “exemplified” by wanton closure of retail outlets in a Rambo style by some unrepented MMDCEs in an industry regulatory bodies is unwarranted and must be condemned with all the attempt it deserves.”

“This has innate results of culminating in chaos and anarchy in the society and inflaming passion among the citizenry thereby creating disaffection for OMCs/LPGMs,” he warned.

Mr. Agyemang-Duah stated that OMCs/LPGMs are neither ‘monsters’ nor ‘criminals’ but are Ghanaians making a living by legally investing in the petroleum industry.



“Some marketers have their administrative offices within the confines of such outlets. Therefore, our intent to have a safe operation of our outlets cannot be in doubt,” he maintained.

Mr. Agyemang-Duah suggested that the situation rather calls for a sober deep seated thought, through unbiased and unfetted investigations to unearth the root causes and furnish the nation with sustained corrective and preventive actions which will inform the public in a positive manner whilst consolidating or improving the existing industry standards for the public safety.