Parliament adopts two reports on $80m facility for TOR

Accra, July 13, GNA - Parliament on Tuesday adopted two separate reports of the Committee on Mines and Energy on the offshore mooring agreement between the Republic of Ghana and a number of local and foreign stakeholders for the construction of a Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) and Conventional Buoy Mooring (CBM) on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Energy, moved the motions for the adoption of the two reports.

The first report was on the agreement between the Government of Ghana and Trafigura BV (Trafigura), Tema Offshore Mooring Limited and Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and the second, which was consequential to the first, was between the afore mentioned stakeholders on one hand and the Barclays Bank of South Africa, on the other, acting as Security Trustee for Trafigura, financiers of the project.

Mr Albert. B. Boadi-Mensah, Chairman of the Committee, noted that under the terms of the agreement, Trafigura would install a SBM and CBM at least 5kilometres offshore and the SBM would be connected to TOR by 36-inch diameter pipeline for crude oil only and the CBM connected to an 18-inch diameter pipeline for finished products only.

"Trafigura has also agreed as part of the project to undertake a 40 million US dollar worth Storage Tank Farm Project, which brings the total cost of the entire SBM/CBM and tank farm facility to 80 million US dollars."

He said under the BOT arrangement, Trafigura would operate and maintain the SBM/CBM for a concessionary period of 10 years and charge a throughput fee of 4.9 US dollars per metric ton.

Mr. Boadi-Mensah said during the concessionary period, investors with similar systems would not be allowed to operate within the same area as Trafigura so as not to adversely affect volume of business of Trafigura to the detriment of their investment.

He said when the Project was completed and became operational, it would reduce demurrage and incidental charges on cargoes due to inadvertent delays at the ports, adding that it also promises to generate more income tax and other related taxes for the country.