Fuel Shortage Looms As Oil Transporters Threaten To Halt Services

Ghana could be hit with fuel shortages soon following a threat by the Tanker Owners Union to halt the transportation of fuel across the country over claims some foreign nationals have taken over their business.

Under the local content law and the deregulation of the petroleum sector, the haulage of petroleum products across the country is reserved for indigenous Ghanaian companies.

But according to the Union a Chinese firm behind the construction of an Oil Refinery at Tema, Sentuo has brought tankers to offload the petroleum products locally.

Member of the union, Kwame Jantuah tells JoyNews that if nothing is done, they will withdraw their services, adding that this is their final resort.

This, he added “will obviously bring shortages of fuel in the country.”

“The moment we deregulated, at the time it was GNPC distributing, the moment we deregulated, it was made that that portion should be given to Ghanaians so if you see, Shell, BP has tankers which do not belong to them but because we pick for them we paint our tankers with their emblem but they don’t own the tankers.

“So why should the refinery now say that they have their tankers and distributing? Do TOR, NPA, and BDCs have their own tankers? They all depend on us so if you are coming in, you are going to kill our business and we have to fight for it,” he said.

He added that his members are afraid of losing their business, they are also frustrated about the development since they have gone for loans to buy the trucks used to transport the fuel.

According to him, over 5,000 of their tankers are idle because they do not have enough fuel to haul fuel.

They therefore urged the National Petroleum Authority to act fast to avoid a national crisis.

Meanwhile, JoyNews is learning the NPA is meeting interest parties in the matter.

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