The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited depot at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region has resumed full operations after almost four years of dormancy. The Depot has not been operational since 2018 due to faulty tanks, pipelines and other operational and maintenance challenges which led to evaporation losses.

The situation compelled BOST to advocate an increase in the BOST Margin.The Margin was increased to enable BOST raise more funds to cover the maintenance and operating cost of petroleum products and to undertake expansion programmes of depots.

Apart from the repairs of the tanks and pipelines of the Bolgatanga Depot, about 300-capacity car park with rest rooms has also been constructed.

Maintenance work was completed in 2020 and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) in the early part of 2021 granted the facility the permission to start re-exporting.

From March 1, 2021 till date, the Bolgatanga Depot has exported about 160 trucks of petrol and diesel to neighbouring Mali.

The Managing Director of BOST, Mr Edwin Alfred Provencal, made these revelations when he led a team of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the energy sector to inspect the level of repair works on the facility so far. The CSOs present included the Integrated Energy Policy Report (IEPR), the Institute for Energy Security (IES), the Alliance for Accountability Governance, OccupyGhana and the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC).

Capacity

He said the depot currently had a capacity of about 45 million litres which was equivalent to about 900 trucks of petrol and diesel. It was strategically positioned to meet local demands and take full advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

The managing director explained that the Bolgatanga Depot was critical to the economic development of the country and the management of BOST was committed to taking the necessary steps to expand the facility to take full advantage of the Sahelian market of the landlocked countries and the AfCFTA.

Mr Provencal noted that apart from supplying the local market with the needed petrol and diesel, the facility would contribute to increasing the country’s foreign exchange earnings for sustained growth and development.

“The expansion of this depot is inevitable. This depot currently is about 45 million litres and we hope to grow the demand in the landlocked countries. With increase in demand from those countries, the current capacity may be insufficient and so we have plans to upgrade this facility to add more storage capacity of at least 40 million litres,” he noted.

He explained that when “the zonalisation policy from NPA kicks off fully, that means that this depot will be used regularly by everybody in this business”.

The General Manager, Corporate Planning of BOST, Mr Ato Amissah Wilson, noted that the car park would provide conducive space for parking which would contribute to reducing road crashes as a result of heavy trucks parking at the edges of the road.

Demands

The Bolgatanga Depot Manager, Mr Chukwuemeka Aniebonam, noted that since the resumption of the operations of the facility it has been able to meet customer demands from countries like Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

An IEPR Representative, Mr Kwadwo Poku, noted that the BOST Margin was increased from three per cent to nine per cent to be used for repair works and it was imperative for BOST to ensure accountability to the Ghanaian taxpayer.

He said with the facility in full operation, it would enable Ghana to have a big say at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and urged BOST to continue to work hard to improve on the Bolgatanga Depot’s operations to take advantage of the emerging market demands.

Source: www.graphic.com.gh