BOST pays $585 million commerce debt inside 4 years

The administration of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Firm Restricted, has paid $585 million of its $624 million commerce debt it inherited in 2017 through Internally-Generated Funds over the previous 4 years.

BOST pays Commerce Debt

Mr Edwin Alfred Provencal, the Managing Director of BOST, who introduced this on the Minister’s briefing, in Accra, on Sunday, stated the Firm’s commerce debt now stood at $39 million, saying that 73 per cent of the debt was paid by its IGF whereas the federal government paid 27 per cent.

The commerce debt was incurred as a result of BOST’s failure to pay its buying and selling companions that equipped it with petroleum merchandise.

Moreover, as a result of prudent administration of its sources and infrastructure, BOST had elevated its revenue-earning belongings from 17 per cent to 75 per cent inside two years.

With help from the Vitality Ministry and the Nationwide Petroleum Authority, it had resumed the export of petroleum merchandise to landlocked international locations together with Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

In the meantime, BOST had saved the nation $26 million after it carried out a forensic audit right into a $37 million declare made by some eight Bulk Distribution Corporations (BDCs).

The quantity was finally diminished to $11 million after the forensic audit, which was in respect of petroleum merchandise that allegedly went lacking from the tanks of the nationwide strategic firm between 2009 and 2014.

BOST has additionally paid GH¢61 million out of the GH¢284 million home debt it owed some native banks.

Mr Provencal introduced that BOST would obtain pipes and equipment it purchased since 2011, however couldn’t transport them dwelling at the moment.

The 12 inches pipes would en-route to Ghana from Houston, USA, by November this yr, which might enhance the operational effectivity of distribution of petroleum merchandise and cut back the price of transporting the merchandise by 35 per cent, Mr Provencal added.

The BOST MD acknowledged that the Firm’s focus presently was to enhance its operational effectivity and aggressively develop its enterprise curiosity, to pay dividends to its shareholders.

BOST, which has the mandate of growing and sustaining a nationwide community of bulk storage and transportation of petroleum merchandise, for the time being has six petroleum depots, and 51 storage tanks carrying 425,000 cubic metres of petroleum merchandise.

It additionally has 361 kilometres of pipelines, 4 barges, a tugboat, and a booster station.

GNA