The Government of Ghana is considering lifting a ban it placed on the construction of new Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) outlets in the West African nation.
In view of this, the country’s Ministry of Energy is expected to meet with the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the downstream petroleum regulator in September this year, to finalise a Cabinet memo on the issue.
The Government of Ghana, through NPA, placed a ban on the construction of new LPG outlets, following a gas explosion at Atomic Junction which resulted in the death of seven people including a cameraman with Accra-based NET 2 TV.
Several people also got injured in the explosion.
The ban has since caused discontent among marketers who claimed the move has stalled over US$600 million investment.
“Within the first week of September, we are going to finalise a Cabinet memo on the lifting of the ban on LPG refilling plants. We will meet with NPA and iron out the differences in it and roll it out,” the Chief Director at the Ministry of Energy, Mr Lawrence Apaalse revealed at Kpone near Tema, where he represented the sector Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh at the swearing-in ceremony of new executives for the Ghana National Petroleum Tanker Drivers’ Union.
According to him, with the Cylinder Re-circulation Model (CRM) coming in, there have been issues as to how to roll-out the programme with one of them being the new refilling plants.
He said LPG marketers have been appealing to the Ministry to lift the ban.
Meanwhile, the LPG Marketers Association has welcomed the new development, describing it as a good news.
“We have always respectfully disagreed with the government when it comes to this ban, especially the ban on stations under construction, before the Atomic incident occurred. We would have agreed if the government had said that the NPA should not issue new construction permits to our members.
“Prior to the Atomic incident, a lot of construction permits had been issued from 2014 to 2017, and some of these were in their various stages of constructions, while others were 70% to 90% complete. All these stations had to be put on hold,” Mr. Gabriel Kumi, Vice Chairman of LPG Marketers Association told Myjoyonline.com.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com