BOST expands facilities

Thursday, May 13, 2010 (Page 46)

THE Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited is embarking on a number of projects to position itself to meet the demands of Ghanaians following the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities.
Ghana has a current stock of fuel reserves for up to six weeks and the building of additional storage tanks, among other facilities, is aimed at increasing the country's fuel reserves.
The Managing Director of BOST, Dr Yaw Akoto, told the Daily Graphic that the Accra Plains Depot, for instance, which currently stocks 139 million litres of fuel, was being expanded to take an additional 90 million litres.
Outlining the short, medium and long-term plans of BOST, Dr Akoto said the company was poised to continuously work tirelessly to develop, own, manage and maintain a national network of storage depots and petroleum pipelines to facilitate the smooth bulk transportation, storage and distribution of petroleum products as outlined in its mandate.
He further gave the assurance that BOST would continuously ensure that the country did not run out of fuel stocks at any point in time.
As part of the short-term measures, he said the company was currently building a 12-inch pipeline to replace the six-inch pipeline from Tema to Akosombo to increase the flow of fuel products from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to Akosombo.
In addition to that, it was building more storage tanks to increase the storage of fuel from the current two million litres to 10 million litres.
The projects, Dr Akoto explained, would take between 12 and 24 months to complete.
He further stated that as part of its medium-term measures, BOST would develop a Takoradi Petroleum Terminal to construct a 160,000 cubic metre storage facility comprising various tank sizes and ancillary facilities for the storage of refined petroleum products.
A loading gantry and allied facilities, a 300-kilometre 12-inch pipeline or an efficient railway network linking the Takoradi Terminal to Kumasi, among other facilities, would also be constructed.
With regard to the storage of gas, a 500,000 cubic metre storage facility and export terminal for gas would also be constructed under the medium-term plan.
An additional 200,000 cubic metre storage facility to augment the import/re-export activities of refined products would also be constructed at the Takoradi Terminal.
Dr Akoto further stated that the company would provide liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing, storage and re-gassification facilities to serve the company's customers, among others.
According to him, a natural gas transmission unit, which would involve the development of a nation-wide network of natural gas transmission pipelines, as well as bulk transmission pipelines and regulatory monitoring stations (RMS), would also be constructed.
With regard to its Tema Secondary Gas Market, BOST is expected to construct an interconnection header with the West African Gas Pipeline Company for the immediate supply of natural gas to existing customers, among other roles.
The BOST, which was established in 1993 as a limited liability company with the government as the sole shareholder, currently has seven storage depots, four barges, among a host of assets.