The National Petroleum Authority has been urged to make public the list of sanctions it imposed on Sentuo Oil Refinery, a Chinese-owned company, by the Institute for Energy Security (IES) and the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC).
On Wednesday, February 21, 2024, IES and COPEC expressed concerns regarding the refinery’s operation without the proper permit from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and its purported supply of substandard fuel.
The two organizations demanded that the Office of the Special Prosecutor look into the refinery’s operations and threatened to file a legal petition to force it to act morally.
“To make public the full stream of sanctions imposed on SORL since it released the unwholesome products onto the Ghanaian market, as the said products are believed to be off-specification,” COPEC and IES demanded in a statement on February 25.
They are also demanding a compensation package for those who have been impacted by Sentuo’s tainted oil products.
“The Association of Oil Marketing Companies and its members affected by the bad fuel and its attendant challenges on their facilities, as well as the consumers who patronized these products and are currently grappling with one issue or the other on their engines, must be made aware of the fact that any such sanctions on the Chinese refinery must factor in due and appropriate compensations,” the NPA demands to know.
Below is the full joint press release.
IES-COPEC JOINT PRESS RELEASE
25th February 2024, Accra
IS THE NPA BEING ARM TWISTED TO DEFEND THE APPARENT WRONGS BY THE CHINESE-RUN REFINERY SENTUO
MAKE PUBLIC THE SANCTIONS IMPOSED ON SENTUO IF ANY AND INSTEAD WORK OPENLY TO PROTECT YOUR HARD-WON REPUTATION.
The Institute for Energy Security (IES) and the Chamber for Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) have sighted a faceless, unsigned public statement purported to be issued by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and which attempts to reject the earlier position of IES and COPEC that it is playing soft with the Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited (SORL) to the detriment of consumers of petroleum products and the state.
The IES and COPEC maintain this earlier position and believe the same to be true until the NPA applies all the necessary rules pertinent to the industry as it does with all other Ghanaian petroleum service providers (PSPs) strictly, without fear or favor to engender public trust as well as maintain the integrity of the downstream petroleum sector to protect the NPAs own hard-won reputation over the years.
To buttress the claim of Sentuo products causing damage to vehicles and complaints, as had earlier been asserted, the IES and COPEC refer to the bold statement released by the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs) on 21st February 2024 bringing to the attention of the NPA chief executive the growing concerns of several of its members about the said quality parameters and viscosity of Sentuo’s petroleum products its members were supplied with.
According to the release by the AOMC, their complaints situate the inability of some of their petroleum service station dispensers or pumps to efficiently dispense Sentuo products as well as other quality issues resulting in a significant number of customer complaints effective 1st February 2024.
In the purported statement by the NPA, contradicts its initial claims of no wrongdoing to bizarrely conclude that beyond the remedial actions taken on Sentuo’s out-of-specification products, it is also imposing additional sanctions on Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited (SORL).
One wonders, if indeed the Sentuo refinery products on the market are not a source of worry why the additional sanctions by the NPA?
To proceed, the IES and COPEC are requesting the NPA to make public the full stream of sanctions imposed on SORL since it released the unwholesome products onto the Ghanaian market as the said products are believed to be off specification.
Further, the NPA in insisting Sentuo Refinery has acquired all due licenses to enable it to put products onto the Ghanaian market is also entreated to publish both the Commercial licenses so granted and the Quality Assurance Certificate on the petroleum consignment in question, for the sake transparency and dispelling industry and consumer fears that the refinery is in a hurry to side step some regulatory protocols meant to ensure no rules of safety are bent using apparent arm twisting as we currently seeing.
Finally, the NPA must be made aware of the fact that any such sanctions on the Chinese refinery must factor due and appropriate compensations to both the Association Of Oil Marketing Companies and its members affected by the bad fuel and its attendant challenges on their facilities as well as the consumers who patronized these products and are currently grappling with one issue or the other on their engines.
Anything short of ensuring the payment of these compensations will surely result in a legal suit against the refinery and our regulators in the coming days.
Signed:
Nana Amoasi VII (Executive Director, IES)
Mr. Duncan Amoah (Executive Secretary, COPEC)
