Government must pay attention to the Petroleum Sector – Aspiring CPP GEN. Sec

An aspiring National General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) has called on the government to pay more attention to the petroleum sector as petroleum prices reduce globally due to the insurgency of the Coronavirus pandemic. He says the reduction is not reflecting on the local market to give a relief to Ghanaian consumers.

This was contained in a statement released by the Joseph Kwadwo Afari-Yeboah and copied to Ghananewsonline.com.gh

“The government liberalized the downstream petroleum sector with the introduction of deregulation policy in 2015 and the emergence of Bulkoil Distribution Companies (BDCs). We have preferred the importation of finished petroleum products as against the refining of crude at the Tema Oil Refinery which gave a competitive pricing advantage. Government has also introduced huge taxes and levies on finished petroleum products which are paid for by the consuming public,” he revealed.

“Two major state enterprises in the sector is the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) company and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). Within 2004 and 2008 BOST embarked on massive expansion of its fuel tank farms including its Tema, Juapong (Maame Water), Kumasi and Buipe stations. These were huge investments by the state during the Kufour administration. It will be remembered that this expansion helped with the petroleum hedging policy presented to then Finance Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo. TOR on the other hand apart from its huge debt management with levies is also reported having been refurbished for operations.

“Notwithstanding the investment made in these two state enterprises, government is unable to purchase crude for the optimal operations of TOR and BOST. They are rather offering services to the BDCs and Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) who import their products to either be stored or refined by these companies,” he stated.

Mr. Joseph Kwadwo Afari-Yeboah questioned what has become of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) with the deregulation policy

“How has the government positioned itself to protect the citizenry and the local petroleum market against price hikes which has huge repercussions and impact on our economies high cost of transportation, cost of doing business, cost of food and several other essential commodities and services which poses burdens on the pockets of the ordinary Ghanaian,” he added.

“Government currently seem to focus on the upstream petroleum sector with revenue from our oil fields exploited by foreign companies. It is not enough to only be receiving royalties and corporate taxies as dividends from our upstream petroleum industry. Even with that successive NDC/NPP governments are unable to judiciously utilize and account for our oil revenue and the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) continue to be a charade and a farce. The Ghana National Petroleum corporation (GNPC) and the Petroleum Commission are only positioned as regulators and data management companies and advocates for the ineffective local content policy.

The statement however explained that the Convention People’s Party will set an agenda in advocating for reforms particularly on state participation and efficient management of the petroleum sector value chain and the development of the sector to benefit the Ghanaian people, “stressing that countries like Norway and Trinidad and Tobago took their destiny into their own hands and developed robust petroleum sectors which strengthen their respective economies”.

The Aspiring General Secretary noted that Ghana cannot continue to fail in our petroleum sector as we have already failed as a country to manage our cocoa industry, our agricultural sector, manufacturing sector, mining sector, as well as protecting our forest and water bodies and the timber industry

“The CPP government has done it before to have demonstrated that Ghanaians are capable of managing their affairs and to build a resilient and bouyous economy” he stated.

Source: William Dei-Gyau