The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) has initiated strategic steps to expand its market share to make the company more efficient, and one of such moves is a proposed establishment of a depot at Takoradi to serve that enclave.
BOST has depots at Accra Plains, Kumasi, Buipe, Bolgatanga, Akosombo and Mami Water with a total capacity of 425,600m3. As part of BOST’s expansion drive, it has acquired a 185-acre land at Pumpini near Takoradi in the Western Region for the establishment of storage infrastructure.
“The Western Region storage facility will have spaces for 90,000 m3 gasoline, 60,000 m3 gasoil and 20,000mt LPG. The actual construction of the proposed facility is expected to commence in 2020. The completion of the facility will give the company enough visibility to serve the market and compete favourably in that part of the country,” Edwin Alfred Nii Obodia Provencal, Managing Director of BOST, has said.
He noted that actualization of the Western Region depot, coupled with other strategic plans such as an enhancement of products’ transportation will help BOST capture about 50% of the market share in the medium term. Currently, BOST controls about 23% of the market; even though it has a 35% storage capacity of national stock.
Mr. Provencal who disclosed this during a sensitization workshop for members of the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) held at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region, said the move form part of efforts to turn the company around in order to make it a profitable enterprise in the petroleum supply chain.
He also stated that the company plans to rollout many infrastructure expansion to ensure operational efficiency, especially inter-depot connecting pipelines, such as a proposed pipeline between Akosombo and Kumasi. This, he said, will reduce the quantum of products transportation by Bulk Road Vehicles (BRVs) also known as road tankers. “BRVs transportation is highly risky and also puts excessive pressure on the road.”
The BOST MD continued that the company was working assiduously to activate export trade with landlocked countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to generate more revenue. “We have had levels of discussions with our business partners to supply them petroleum products through the Bolgatanga depot. There’s going to be construction of a 200km pipeline from Bolgatanga to Bingo in Burkina Faso to facilitate the export business”, he said.
Mr. Provencal, however, stated that for the above-mentioned strategies to come to fruition, much will depend on how quick BOST can raise substantial money to execute those projects, indicating that the company requires about US$150 million, of which US$64 million will be used to improve infrastructures such as storage facilities and pipelines.