Vice President Dr
Mahamudu Bawumia on Wednesday said significant progress has been made towards
the pilot implementation of the Cylinder Recirculation Model under the National
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Promotion Policy.
He said the Policy sought to ensure that LPG
consumers have access to safe, efficient, affordable and
environmentally-friendly LPG for commercial, industrial and domestic use by
2030.
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) says
the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company is producing 37,000 cylinders needed
for the pilot project in October this year, in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region and
Kwaebibirim in the Denkyemboa District of the Eastern Region.
Dr Bawumia assured of government’s
commitment to continue implementing policies and programmes to protect the
safety and interests of Ghanaians.
Vice President Bawumia announced this at the
opening of the third edition of the Ghana International Petroleum Conference
(GhipCon) in Accra on Wednesday, held on the theme,” Regional Collaboration: A
Catalyst for Transformation”.
The conference was organised by the Ministry
of Energy and National Petroleum Authority in collaboration with the Chamber of
Bulk Oil Distributors, which attracted petroleum experts, policy-makers,
business men and women and captains of industry in the sub-region.
It is designed to actively bring to the fore
the operating industry’s perspectives and guidance on issues of governmental
and regulatory policy as well as best practices for the advancement of the
petroleum downstream sector across the West African sub-region.
It will also afford stakeholders in the
petroleum downstream industry in West African sub-region, to harmonise their
policies and explore opportunities to allow the industry to respond to global
development and trends consistent with member countries’ interests and aid in
their economic transformation.
Some topics outlined for discussion include;
Unlocking West Africa’s Deregulatory Inertia, Making West Africa’s Refineries
Work, Ghana’s Cylinder Recirculation Model, Harmonising Sub-regional Petroleum
Products Specifications and Challenges of Regional Distribution of Petroleum
Products.
The Vice President said government was in
the process of ensuring institutional and regulatory re-alignment of the
midstream gas sub-sector to bring clarity and a degree of certainty to players
in the industry.
In that regard, he said, the Energy Minister
would soon finalise re-alignment and commence legislative consolidation of the
Gas Master Plan into a Gas Act, which was an important requirement for
development of Ghana into a petrochemical hub in the West African sub-region.
He said the proposed Gas Act would provide
an enabling environment and appropriate incentives for investors and assured of
government’s resolve to make the security of gas supply as feedstock for
petrochemical plans a priority.
He said procurement of natural gas from
domestic sources had been secured under regulation governing domestic supply
obligation of upstream gas producers.
He, therefore, urged investors to take
advantage of the favourable petroleum market environment in Ghana to invest in
infrastructure such as oil jetties, pipelines and distribution facilities, as
well as refineries, gas processing plants and storage and loading gantries.
Following the deregulation of the petroleum
downstream sector in Ghana, Dr Bawumia said the sector had witnessed
significant investment and expansion of petroleum products and outlets
facilities.
He gave the assurance that government would
continue to create an enabling environment for petroleum downstream sector to
thrive competitively, efficiently and with the highest safety standards.
He said the investment had been championed
by the private sector with growing number of indigenous Ghanaian companies,
given rise to new entrants licensed to operate as petroleum service providers
with over 250 licensed operators across the value chain and more than 15
licensed categories providing support services.
Over the past eight years, he said bulk
distribution companies had grown from eight to 35, with oil marketing companies
(OMCs) increased from 81 to 115 and 19 companies currently providing support
services in areas like tank calibration, underground storage and above storage
cleaning and non-destructive testing.
“As a country, our vision for the petroleum
downstream industry is to ensure that Ghana becomes a key player in the
downstream petroleum industry in the West African sub-region.
“To this end, government is also working on
Petroleum Transportation Infrastructure Master Plan aimed at enhancing the pace
of infrastructure sourcing with a regional context in mind,” he added.
Vice President Bawumia said the Plan would
facilitate the demand of an alternative transportation infrastructure for
petroleum products such as railway lines, pipelines and river badges to major
demand centres across the country and link the sub-regional markets to further
deepen the regional integration agenda.
Source: GNA
