The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) has described as ‘unfounded allegations’, claims by members of the Ghana National Petroleum Tanker Driver Union that operations at its various depots has taken a nosedive.
The above-mentioned union earlier in a letter petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and copied to the Minister of Energy to intervene as BOST’s operations have led to their members being jobless for almost seven months to one year.
In a letter signed by the Union’s National Chairman, Mr. George Nyaun, the group noted that they tried to resolve the problems regarding operations at BOST by meeting management and other stakeholders in the industry.
“However the painful truth is that majority of our members have been rendered jobless for almost between seven months to one year due to the downward trend of BOST’s operations at its depots,” portion of the letter to the President read.
Reacting to the Union’s claim, the Corporate Communications and External Affairs of BOST noted that it has taken notice of the Union’s petition to the President and added that it found the claim by the Union as ‘unfounded allegations.
In a 12-pointer press release, BOST explained that the transmission of fuel for its Primary Depors in Accra to Kumasi, Buipe, Akosombo, and Bolgatanga depots are Carrie’s out through three modules: Road (Tankers also called BRVS), Pipelines and River Barges via the Volta Lake.
It continues that it has two pipelines connecting Tema-Akosombo and Buipe-Bolgatanga Depors and added that over the past few years, the two pipelines have been down and all the four River Barges were also grounded.
“Efficient resource utilization and focused management have resulted in a full repair of all four river barges that were grounded and the two pipelines which had been out of use for close to five years. The barges are in full utilization and the Buipe-Bolgatanga Petroleum Product Pipeline is in full use. The Tema-Akosombo Product pipeline is expected to be in use by the close of the third quarter,” the press release stated.
Explaining further, the release noted that one river barges voyage from Akosombo to Buipe takes a total of about 5,300,000 liters of product and further notes that with a maximum capacity of 54,000 liters per tanker (tanker or BRV as indicated earlier), one barge trip is the equivalent of (5,300,000/54,000) = 95 trucks. With the barges making close to 10 turns in a month,(98×10) =980 trucks loads are saved.
According to the release, in the process, more volumes of products transferred to the northern depots in Buipe which further push through the repaired pipelines to Bolgatanga to facilitate the export business into the landlocked countries and to meet the domestic demand of the northern, Upper East and West as well as North East and Savannah Regions.
Debunking the claims by the drivers Union, BOST pointed out that for a faster and quicker movement of volumes to meet the increasing export demand, the barges/pipelines formula is more efficient and will therefore affect the volume that gets transferred through the use of Road Truck(BRVs or Tankers).
Concluding the press release urging the public to disregard the allegations and added that they should trust BOST to live up to the bidding for the good people of Ghana.
“We further wish to encourage the media to practice responsible reportage of issues by cross-checking with the Corporate Communications and External Affairs department of BOST to avoid misleading reports like these,” the release stated and added that BOST is in safe hands (a solid board and management team) and things are getting better with asset utilization improved from 15% to 85% (including the pipelines and barges) within a year.
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