GNPC DENIES PRODUCT DIVERSION ALLEGATIONS

THE Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye has denied allegations that the corporation was diverting refined finished products from the government-government crude oil arrangements to certain individuals within the corridors of government.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic in the wake of allegations by workers of the Tema Oil Refinery of the GNPC’s alledged diversion of products to its board chairman Mr Ato Ahwoi, Nana Asafu Adjaye indicated, TOR as an institution was handicapped owing to the difficult financial crisis which has resulted in its inability to obtain Letters of Credit (LCs) for the purchase of crude oil for refining.
He said government had tried to bail the refinery out from the crisis by requesting the GNPC facilitate the Letters of Credit required for the importation of crude oil.
He explained that the GNPC as an agency do not retail petroleum products but rather when refined products from crude oil processed are by TOR, the corporation then supplies the products to bulk distribution companies such as Cirrus energy, Fuel Trade and Sahara who have the capacities to establish letters of credit for purchases.
Nana Asafu-Adjaye noted, the Ministry of Energy, the National Petroleum Authority, TOR and the GNPC had agreed on a processing fee of $32.5 cent per metric tonne of crude of oil procured by the corporation.
‘It’s absurd on the part of workers of the refinery to be raising red flags about this arrangement as we believe the present tolling arrangement was necessary in view the current situation TOR finds itself in’, he remarked.
According to Nana Boakye, the corporation’s temporary arrangement towards salvaging TOR from its predicament was done in the national interest.
He reiterated that no member of the board or for that matter the board chair, Mr Ato Ahwoi have diverted any petroleum product meant for the general public’s consumption as being alledged by the workers.
Commenting on the corporation’s progress towards the acquisition of Kosmos energy’s stake in the jubilee field, Nana Boakye said, the corporation has made considerable progress in the discussion.
He disclosed the breach committed in the agreement by Kosmos through the disclosure of confidentiality agreement of GNPC’s data without any prior notification to the corporation was tended to the later’s proprietary interest.
According to the chief executive, the provision of the petroleum agreement requires that, ‘any party disclosing information or providing data to any third party under article 16.6 shall require such person to undertake the confidentiality of such data.
‘We are committed to ensuring that the country derives maximum benefit from the oil find as we make efforts to ensure investors gets decent return on their investment’, he added.
Workers of TOR at a recent emergency meeting accused officials of the GNPC from diverting from its core business of exploration into selling of finished products from the government-government crude oil arrangement from neighbouring Nigeria being processed by the refinery.