Publish BOST-BB trade terms – COPEC

The Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Ghana (COPEC-Ghana), Duncan Amoah, has dared the Managing Director of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), Mr Obeng Boateng, to publish the state oil company’s terms of trade with BB Energy.

This comes on the heels of claims by COPEC that Ghana lost in excess of GHS23 million in revenue from a transaction BOST had with BB Energy.

The losses, COPEC insists, were recorded from the sale of some 1.8 million barrels of crude oil.

According to Mr Amoah, BOST could have made more profit if it had done proper negotiations.

He noted that the excuse given by BOST for the sale of those products is not tenable.

Addressing a news conference in Accra on Monday, 19 March 2018, he wondered why BOST decided to sell the crude to only one company instead of opening it up to other businesses.

He said: “We’ve said open the process, publish it, ‘I have crude here I want to sell anybody interested should bring their preposition’. I’m sure that way TOR would have come out to say ‘I’ll pay you plus one, somebody would have come and say we’ll pay you minus 10 or minus 20, another would have come and say I’ll pay you plus three but when you decide to go into a sole negotiation whatever that motivation will be will definitely be telling on the sort of transaction dynamics at play.

“Indeed, we have heard BOST suggesting that they needed the money. Our checks further indicate that BB Energy even as of today is still paying for the crude. They haven’t finished paying six months after the transaction. What we gather further is that when TOR processes the crude, BB Energy picks and makes payment to BOST. So, like we’ve said earlier, what really changed is the ownership and value of the product to BB Energy. Nothing useful, nothing purposeful, no gain ever came to Ghana as far as that crude is concerned. We are interested in all of this simply because when BOST engages in these inefficient transactions that leave BOST with huge debts, it is not the BOST Managing Director, it is not the Fuel Trading Manager, it is not any of them at BOST that pays for it.”

He continued: “The average Ghanaian taxi driver, the average teacher, the person in his office this morning who may not be connected in selling crude or discounting same, will be asked at a later date that BOST has a certain debt and so let us contribute. If you recall the ESLA which today has lifted the petroleum prices very high, it’s as a result of some of these inefficient decisions that at the end you hear this company owes one billion when their opponents, the private players transacting in same are able to make profits and be able to make further investments.

Stressing further, Mr Amoah said BOST is reeling under a debt of GHS900million. “The three pesewas we pay to BOST is inefficiently being managed and as we speak, BOST is reeling under a debt of almost GHS900million. We are interested in how those debts came about; we are interested in how much debt is being added as we speak today.”

He noted that COPEC will immediately refer its gatherings about the BOST deal to the office of the Special Prosecutor for onward investigations.