State institutions owe GOIL GH¢20m

 

Key state institutions owe the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL) more than GH¢20 million in debts accrued from the consumption of petroleum products.

The oil company is also faced with liquidity challenges as a result of the depreciation of the cedi against the major currencies, which has resulted in huge losses.

Another issue confronting the company, which has been licensed to operate as a bulk oil distribution company (BDC), in addition to the existing 23 BDCs, is the difficulty in raising enough foreign exchange to import finished petroleum products to meet increasing demand by consumers.

These setbacks have resulted in the shortage of petroleum products at some GOIL fuel dumps in the capital.
The Managing Director of the company, Mr Patrick A. K. Akorli, who made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic, however, declined to mention the names of the said state institutions.

“We operate as a state institution and it is our mandate to serve state bodies at all times. We also wish to state that the government is doing all it can to settle its indebtedness to us,” he explained.

Fuel shortage
Touching on the shortage of petroleum products at some GOIL fuel dumps, Mr Akorli said, “The reality is that we sell below the ex-pump price. We are recording losses and until fuel prices are adjusted, we will continue to make losses.”
“Despite these challenges, GOIL, in partnership with the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), is working around the clock to ensure that enough petroleum products are supplied to the market before the beginning of next week,” he added.
He said the situation would normalise in a week or two.
“We are making arrangements with BOST and the GNPC to bring more products to the market to meet the demands of consumers,” Mr Akorli added.
GOIL licence
He said GOIL was putting in place the necessary logistics to enable it to lift oil in bulk quantities in the next few weeks.

“We are building more storage depots and fuel dumps across the country and have rebranded to position GOIL in a way that will make it more profitable. We are solid on the ground and we wish to assure Ghanaians that GOIL will be a force to reckon with in the coming months,” he pointed out.

He added that GOIL and its partners were committed to guaranteeing continued uninterrupted supply of petroleum products to the market.
Crisis
The petroleum downstream industry is currently facing liquidity crisis, as the credit lines of most oil marketing companies (OMCs) have been cut due to a GH¢1 billion debt they owe the BDCs.
At present, the government owes the BDCs GH¢1.3 billion and an audit is being carried into the debt.