Fulfill promise to TOR - BOST workers tell gov’t

Workers of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) have called on government to fulfill its promise to Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to execute its mandate of refining crude oil in the country.

Bernard Owusu, Chairman of Unionized Staff of BOST, at a press conference in Tema said, “We are looking forward to the day when Bulk Distributing Companies (BDCs) will cease the importation of inferior fuel and use our cherished TOR refinery to process at a cost to the State.”

Government recently said it was not ready to sell TOR but focused on transforming the refinery into a world-class facility.

The state refinery has not been operating at full capacity in recent times due to its huge indebtedness and other operational inefficiency.

Currently, TOR needs $600 million to be able to process crude oil continuously, according to Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Minister of Energy & Petroleum.

Mr Owusu urged President Mahama to ensure that all agencies under the Petroleum and Energy sector remain within their remit and that no agency should be allowed to usurp their function.

He commended the current board and management team of BOST for implementing drastic measures to transform the sector.

“Three month after assuming office, the new Board and Mr. Awuah Darko led management team took a strategic decision to outsource the operations, maintenance and management of our terminals on a one year pilot basis to a competent operator to address the operational, technical and financial challenges at the time,” he said.

The decision, he said, had resulted in the upgrade of terminal facilities, drastic reduction of product losses, introduction of standard operating procedure and staff training and development.

Mr. Owusu said, “Currently our two major cross-country pipelines have been assessed technically and results indicate that the Buipe to Bolgatanga Petroleum Product Pipeline can be brought on stream by the end of November, this year after some amount of maintenance and upgrade have been done.”

He said the Tema to Akosombo Product Pipeline is scheduled to come on stream by December 2014 after it was repaired and automated.

Mr Owusu said BOST had initiated processes towards the construction of a gas storage terminal for processed gas from Atuabo.

He said BOST also has plans to build the existing infrastructure which Ghana Gas built with the CDB loan, adding that “it hopes to extend gas grid to Kumasi by 2016 and Buipe by 2018 for power generation and conversion of large limestone deposit at Buipe to clinker to support national development.”

“This project of about 1,200 kilometers will be undertaken in two phases. The first phase involves extending the Gas grid from Esiama to Kumasi, then from Kumasi to Buipe, followed by a loop from Accra to Aboadze by the end 2020,” he indicated.