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BOST poised to tap into $970m W/A  re-export petroleum market

The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Limited (BOST) Company says it is re-positioning itself in order to tap into the US$970 million petroleum re-export market in the West African Sub-region, the Managing Director, Mr Edwin Alfred Provencal, has said.

According to him, the re-export market in the sub-region had a huge potential that BOST could tap into to shore-up its demand for foreign currency.

 “Ghana has the comparative advantage over its neighbours and could capitalise on it if all the non-tarrif barriers are removed. This will not only help the country to mobilise extra revenue to cushion the depreciating cedi, but also increase the company’s profitability,” he said.

Mr Provencal disclosed this when he took his turn at the bi-weekly Minister’s Briefing organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra yesterday.

He said Ghana could take a cue from the Singapore experience and become the re-export hub on the continent, stressing  that “Last year, Singapore which has no landlocked countries surrounding it made more than $40billion in export revenue through re-export of petroleum products.”

Mr Provencal said as part of the repositioning plans, it had instituted a multi-sectoral forum to enable a discussion among all the stakeholders whose activities would enable the company achieve its set goal of increasing the re-export business.

Touching on operations of the company, Mr Provencal said his administration had been able to plough back on its losses making it profitable now.

He said as of 2017 when the new management took over, the company was financially stressed as it owed its foreign suppliers up to $624 million with loan indebtedness to domestic banks up to GH¢416 million and Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs) up to $37 million.

“Also, majority of our network of infrastructure including farm tanks, barges and pipelines were dysfunctional due to lack of maintenance, thereby crippling our sources of revenue generation,” he said.

However, he noted that with efficient operational management coupled with a GH¢30 million loan support from the National Petroleum Authority the company was able to pay $624 million trade liability to its foreign suppliers and also made GH¢460 million profit after tax in 2021.

Moving forward in its business portfolio in the coming years, the MD of BOST said, it would move from just enhancing operational excellence towards aggressive growth in the business of transporting petroleum products across the country and to the landlocked countries including Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to improve on its profitability.

In addition,  Mr Provencal said the company would embark on rebranding of its corporate image, improve its corporate culture and human capital development as well as strengthen its trade partnerships.

He said with support from the Ministry of Energy, a petroleum hub facilities for storage purposes were being installed in the Western Region.

Additionally, 12-inch pipelines would be installed from Tema to Akosombo to improve the volumes of petroleum products from Tema Oil Refinery.

The MD of BOST gave the assurance that the rehabilitation of its dilapidated farm tanks and upgrading of depots would continue in 2023.

He assured that the company had instituted stringent measures to avert future contamination of its petroleum products.

BY CLIFF EKUFUL

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