Ghana: TOR Exposed Over Shady Sale Of 260,000 Litres Of Slop Oil To Unlicensed Companies

A painstaking investigation by energynewsafrica.com has uncovered shady transactions between state-owned Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and two entities that do not have the required license to operate in the petroleum downstream industry.

Documents available to energynewsafrica.com showed that on 4th May 2022, TOR sold a total of 260Metric Tonnes (260,000) of slop oil in their storage tank to K-Moy Ghana Limited and Petro XP Ghana Limited on a cash and carry basis where each received 130 metric tonnes.

However, industry experts say the product can be blended with crude and refined for maximum profit instead of selling it cheaply.

To unravel the crooked trade, energynewsafrica.com called Charles Awuah, General Manager (GM) Commerce of TOR, who is a signatory to the sale document, on the telephone, about the transaction and scheduled a meeting.

In his office on Monday, 30th May 2022, Mr. Awuah, in the company of three other staff members, hosted energynewsafrica.com which produced a letter to its hosts to prove their shady sale of the 260MT slop oil to the two unlicensed companies.

Immediately Mr. Awuah sighted the letter of proof, he requested energynewsafrica.com to officially write to TOR on the matter.

On 7th June 2022, energynewsafrica.com emailed an official letter to TOR, captioned: ‘Sale of Slop’.

The letter was subsequently copied to Mr Awuah via WhatsApp, and he acknowledged receipt.

After several days of waiting for official written responses to queries in the letter, a telephone call came from a lady who introduced herself as Matilda Adjoah Frempah from the Public Affairs Department of Tema Oil Refinery, explained to this portal that the stock it was investigating was a waste product.

Energynewsafrica.com requested her (Matilda) to put her response in writing to make it official but that has never been done.

A check by energynewsafrica.com at the Registrar-General’s Department showed that Martha Osei-Yeboah and Kwabena Osei-Yeboah are Directors of K-Moy Ghana Limited.

However, the Registrar-General’s Department data has no such name as Petro XP Ghana Limited. That means Petro XP Ghana Limited is not a registered entity.

The portal’s further checks at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Accra, were evident that neither of the companies-K-Moy Ghana Limited and Petro XP Ghana Limited-had registered with the Authority to do oil business in the downstream petroleum sector.

This portal, however, noted that Petrol XP Ghana Limited had been registered by NPA, but it is not in good standing since the beginning of 2022.

This means that it has no legitimate licence to operate since its licence had expired.

It is important to note that Petrol XP Ghana Limited, which is the registered entity that is not in good standing, has the spelling of Petrol has (L) while the company that bought the slop from TOR had Petro without (L).

The action of TOR is in breach of Sections 11(1) and (2) of the NPA Act, Act 691 which stipulates that:

1. A person shall not engage in a business or commercial activity in the downstream industry unless that person has been granted a licence for that purpose by the Board.
2. The business or commercial activities of the downstream industry in respect of crude oil, gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene and other designated petroleum products are: (a) Importation, (b) Exportation, (c) Re-exportation, (d) Shipment, (e) Transportation, (f) Processing (g) Refining, (h) Storage, (i) Distribution, (j) Marketing, and (k) Sale.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com