The Ghana International Petroleum Conference (GhIPCON) is Ghana’s foremost Petroleum Downstream Conference organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy, National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD). GhIPCON is designed to actively bring to the fore the operating industry’s perspective and guidance on issues of governmental and regulatory policy as well as best practices for the advancement of the industry not only in Ghana, but across the West African sub region and beyond.
The guest of honour for GhIPCON 2019 is Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana.

The theme for the 2019 Edition is; “Regional Collaboration; A Catalyst for Transformation”. The theme is to stimulate regional discussions that will set the tone for a West African policy framework on the following trending issues in the Petroleum Downstream industry.

• Outlook of the Petroleum Downstream Industry
• Regulating petroleum downstream for efficiency
• Downstream Infrastructure projects and financing
• IMO 2020 and fuel specification trends; is West Africa ready?
• Making West African refineries work
• Illicit activities, fuel fraud and supply chain security in the West African sub-region; and
• Consumerizing West Africa’s Natural Gas.

The conference will witness a convergence of regulators and downstream industry stakeholders from across the West African Sub Region and beyond.
The event will be held at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra, Ghana from the 10th to 11th of July 2019. There will also be a CITAC training session on the 12th of July, 2019 at the National Petroleum Authority in Dzorwulu, Accra.

Kindly visit us on www.ghipcon.com for further enquiries and registration details or contact us on telephone number +233 (0) 54 012 1426.

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Angela Osei-Badu
CBOD

The management and staff of Chase Logistics, the owner of Tema Tank Farms (TTF) and a member of the CH Group, has organized its maiden BRV safety clinic and workshop in Tema.

The theme for the event was ‘We mean safety, All accidents are preventable’. The objective of the program is to create a safety awareness culture through constant education and sensitization with the National Petroleum Authority and other National safety Policies and Procedures. The event also hopes to provide a platform that helps to identify risks in the duties of BRV drivers and sensitize BRV owners and drivers on legal and regulatory requirements and compliance expectations of the National Petroleum Authority, Ghana National Fire Service, Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority and GRA-Customs Division.

Mr. Bartholomew Darko, the Managing Director of Chase Logistics said the company hopes to do its part in improving health, safety and security on both people and the environment.

He said ‘given the crucial role our tanker drivers play and the systematic and un-systematic risks in their operations, it is important that from time to time we create a platform that will discuss our operations and workable preventive measures that can be brought to bear to safely contribute to the development of the country’.

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Angela Osei-Badu
CBOD

Executive Director of Salt and Light Ministries Dr Joyce Aryee has congratulated the Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distribution (CBOD) Senyo Hosi who was recently awarded for his contribution to Ghana’s Oil and Gas industry. Mr Hosi was honoured with the Outstanding Chief Executive Officer of the Year 2018 award, at the ninth Ghana Entrepreneurs and Corporate Executives Awards held in Accra.

He was recognized for demonstrating outstanding corporate vision, business excellence, innovation, strategic leadership and growth in the downstream petroleum sector.
In a statement, Dr Joyce Aryee, on behalf of the entire membership of Salt and Light Ministries congratulated Mr Hosi saying “Your hard work has borne you good fruit” and urged him on to keep up the hard work and dedication.

PROFILE (SENYO HOSI)
Senyo Hosi is a Ghanaian thought leader, finance and economic policy analyst and an experienced management professional with years of experience in the downstream petroleum industry and across others sectors. He is also a renowned industry advocate and has been instrumental in the development of major policies in Ghana’s energy sector.
Senyo Hosi in 2018 received the Osagyefo Young Leadership Award and in 2016, the Most Outstanding Oil and Gas Personality (Downstream).
Mr Hosi holds an MBA in Finance and an MA in Economic Policy Management from the University of Ghana, Legon.
He serves on a number of corporate and public boards including the Private Enterprises Foundation (PEF), the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) Legacy Bonds Limited (LBL) and NDK Capital Ltd.

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CBOD

“In taking the decisions, the commission received and considered tariff proposals from stakeholders including the following utility services providers in the electricity and water sectors; Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana Limited, Northern Distribution Company (NEDCo) and Enclave Power Company Limited (EPC).”

On that decision, electricity tariffs have been increased by 11.7 percent and will take effect on July 1.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) said the key objective of the tariff review “was to sustain the financial viability of utility service providers as well as ensuring the delivery of quality services to consumers.”

“This 2019-2020 major Tariff Review Decision is the outcome of prudent cost review and effective monitoring undertaken by the commission.”

The Commission was expected to have announced new tariffs in February 2019 but deferred the decision to the end of the second quarter of 2019.

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Source: Modernghana.com

After 12 years of inconclusive discussions on a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the management and senior staff of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) has finally reached a truce.
Conseqeuently, the two parties have signed the agreement with a commitment to complete and sign same for junior staff in a week.
The long wait had always been a major bone of contention with the phenomenon always causing inflamed passions.

The disagreements have often resulted in the termination of the appionments of managing directors of the company.

But after the signing ceremony, the Managing Director (MD) of the company, Mr George Mensah-Okley, explained that agreeing to a policy document to outline the entitlements and disciplinary procedures for the regulation of employer-employee relations was key to the success of every company.

He expressed satisfaction at the process of streamlining labour relations so far and was confident that BOST was on its way towards becoming a world-class company.

Speedy execution
The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr Ekow Hackman, for his part, thanked all stakeholders for the speedy execution of the assigned task of developing standard conditions of service agreement for BOST.

He urged the union to continue engaging their members to give of their best in seeing the BOST dream to fruition.

He said it was only when the workers committed to their tasks that the goals of the company could be achieved in full.
Mr Hackman also applauded the efforts of the management under the leadership of the current MD. for making progress in the company’s operations in just a year.

Outlining some of the achievements, he said, he was so far satisfied with the progress of work made at retrieving BOST pipelines which had been left in the United States of America for close to 12 years after procurement.

He said he was hopeful that the pipelines would be shipped to Ghana by September, 2019 and work on the new Tema-Akosombo pipeline would be completed to augment the company’s revenue streams.

Mr Hackman further disclosed that adverts for expression of interest had so far been published by BOST on the gas terminals and the Akosombo-Kumasi Pipeline Projects.

Local union
The Chairman of the Senior Staff Association, Mr Abdul Jallil, commended the company’s good leadership which had resulted in the accomplishment of a task which had been outstanding for close to 12 years.

He also advised the board of directors to ignore faceless petitioners who hid behind emerging communication technologies to harm the reputation of the company and further assured management of the support of the union in working towards the achievement of the BOST dream.

ICU’s position
The General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union, Mr Solomon Kotei, also praised the board and management of BOST for the bold step towards securing the present conditions and future of the employees.

“This is the way to go and we believe that this document will serve as a reference point to motivate staff for higher performance and to see the company achieve its targets.”

He urged management to be proactive and review the document as conditions in the general economy changed to ensure that the staff of BOST were not worse off.

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Source: Graphicbusinessonline.com

The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has expressed worry about the delay of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to communicate the tariff which is expected to take effect from July 1, 2019 following the mandatory major tariff review consultations in January this year.

The Commission on February 27, is recalled to have stated its decision to postpone the announcement of the tariff to July was “… due to critical emerging issues in the sector which are expected to affect the final tariff setting.”

Amongst others, PURC stated that the emerging issues are related to the planned relocation of the Karpowership Plant resulting in fuel switch savings from Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to Natural Gas, and reductions in the price of natural gas are anticipated due to ongoing negotiations by government.

However, ACEP does not expect the Commission to, within few days to the effective date, ambush electricity consumers with the new tariff which holds about 90% chance of upward adjustment.

A statement signed and issued on Wednesday, by the Executive Director of ACEP, Mr. Ben Boakye said: “… doing so potentially distorts the plans of consumers significantly, particularly the business community whose investment decisions have been held hostage by the uncertainty in the expected tariff adjustment level.”

According to the statement, the interactions between the policy think-tank and key consumers of electricity show that anxiety is already high within the business community and expects the Commission to be fully sensitive to the realities on the ground in order not to inject unnecessary shock into plans of consumers and, by extension, the economy.

ACEP has called on the Commission to communicate to consumers what its intentions are, as to whether it will extend the effective date of the tariff or immediately announce the tariff, to allow consumers time to absorb and adjust to the changes, whatever that may be.

—ModernGhana

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) last week directed all OMCs to re-introduce the levy on the price buildup of petroleum products.

The directive is coming from the Energy and Finance ministries through the NPA and it was based on the established principle which seeks to insulate consumers against rising prices of petroleum products.

Some industry players have questioned the rationale behind keeping this tax on products at a time when there have been concerns that there are too much taxes on petroleum products.

But sources say the levy is critical because, without them, there wouldn’t be funds to pay for the subsidies on premix fuel and residual fuel oil, which are used by persons with the local income earners.

The source argues that it has strategically applied this levy to ensure that it does not negatively affect consumers, by applying it when prices low and take it off when prices at the pumps are going up.

JoyBusiness understands the directive is impacted on the various price review carried out by the various oil marketing companies.

Prices at the pumps should have gone by more than 5 to 8% for all the various products, from Thursday based on calculations by JoyBusiness. This would have made it one of the biggest reductions in recent times.

However, based on the adjustments done by the major players, like GOIL, Shell and Total, Prices are going down by just about a percentage. This should mean that a litre of diesel and petrol are now going for ¢5.19 translating into ¢23.33 per gallon.

Some of the OMCs have told JoyBusiness that had it not been for the Levy, they could have gone down by more than 1%.

According to the Energy Sector Act, The Stabilization and Recovery Levy is used as a major source of subsidizing the various products, especially for Premix Fuel and Residual Fuel.

—Myjoyonline

The Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) has organized the maiden edition of the ‘ Gas Challenge’ at the British Council in Accra. Industry dignitaries such as Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, Deputy Minister of Energy(Petroleum Sector), Dr Ben Asante, CEO of GNGC graced the event.

The GNGC having been in commercial operations since April 2015 has identified countless public misconceptions about gas operations in Ghana. It had therefore become imperative that GNGC finds ways to educate the public on issues concerning the production of gas, health and safety, utilization of gas for commercial , industrial and domestic purposes.
Thus the introduction of the Gas challenge under the theme: ‘Enhancing knowledge on Gas Industrialization’ and with the slogan ‘Knowledge is power, Gas is power’.

As part of the GNGC Corporate Social Responsibility, this initiative aims at providing an educative platform for impacting knowledge on gas operations.
The quiz will be organized annually between various stakeholders such as the industry regulators, media, civil society organizations , tertiary schools.

The maiden edition saw the Ministry of Energy, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and the Public Interest and Accountability Committee(PIAC) contest in the finals after each had won in their various groups. Some other participants were the State Enterprise Commission(SEC), Africa Centre for Energy Policy(ACEP) and various media houses.
The Ministry of Energy won the maiden edition with a brilliant performance.

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Angela Osei-Badu
CBOD

A gas explosion at Dawhenya in the Ningo-Prampram District of Greater Accra Region, in the early hours of Tuesday, June 18, has led to the death of a 47-year-old man.

The deceased, Anthony Ahiabu, a worker at the Runel Gas Station, was said to be cooking in his room with a domestic gas cylinder at a time that liquefied petroleum gas was being discharged from a tanker onto the main gas reservoir at the station.

In the process, according to eyewitnesses, the gas cylinder he was using exploded due to the remnants of the discharged gas, resulting in the death of the man.

The Ghana Fire Service were at the scene in time to save the entire gas station from further explosion to avoid the entire station from burning to ashes.

Describing the explosion as minor, the Tema Regional Fire Service Operations Officer, DOII William Blankson, said an investigation has been launched into the explosion.

According to him, they have requested for the necessary licenses and permits from the owner of the Runel Gas Station.

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Source: Modernghana

The Institute of Energy Security (IES) is predicting that prices of fuel at the various pumps are expected to reduce by between 3 and 5 percent within the second pricing window in June starting from Monday, June 17.

This the Institute is attributing to developments on the international market.

Per the international market figures, average Brent crude price has fallen by 9.50%, Gasoline by 14.86% and Gasoil by 10.88%.

According to the Institute of Energy Security (IES), the window under review saw prices of Gasoline and Gasoil remain largely unchanged due to a strong intervention by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).

Currently, average prices of petrol and diesel still stand at GHS5.21 pesewas, and GHS5.18 respectively.

Also in the window, the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) uncovered ‘pump-cheating’ by some select Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in Accra.

On the world market, prices for coal, natural gas, LNG and crude oil have all dropped significantly in recent weeks.

Analysts have attributed this development to the fear of global economic growth slowing.

In an interview with Citi Business News Research Analyst at the Institute for Energy Security (IES), Mikdad Mohammed said all things being equal, fuel prices on the local market will fall.

“On the International market, brent crude has gone down, the finished product, gasoline and gasoil too have gone down and these are heavy reductions on the international market. I dare say since November last year, we have not had such huge reductions on the international market” he stated.

The IES also believes the somewhat stability of the cedi could be attributed to the reduction.

IES economic Desk computed figures show that the cedi depreciated by 1.32%.

The cedi which sold at 5cedis,29pesewas two weeks ago at the last window is currently selling at 5cedis, 36 pesewas.

Meanwhile, the IES wants the Ghana Standards Authority and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to enforce stricter sanctions to Oil Marketing Companies who shortchange customers.

About ten OMCs were caught cheating customers at the various pumps during a random visit by the GSA and the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC). They were thus fined 5,000 cedis each for the conduct.

But Mikdad Mohammed believes the GSA and the NPA must intensify their monitoring of the fuel retail market to ensure Ghanaians get quality fuel at their money’s worth.

“That is not enough because if the fuel station in a day is selling to 400 customers and they are cheating every customer by a litre, in six months you can calculate and imagine their returns. This is why we cannot even address the illegal fuel export. They must prosecute the individuals involved and equally getting the OMC’s to take action against the particular officials or attendants who are involved,” he said.

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Source: GhanaWeb