The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has served notice of deploying devices and equipment to track activities at fuel depots across the country.
The country loses up to US$200 million per annum due to illegal activities in the petroleum sector.
One of the measures of curbing the disturbing trend is the installation of monitoring systems to ensure compliance.
At the launch of a newly-introduced Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) and a National Command Centre for tracking movement of Bulk Road Vehicles (BRV) in Accra, Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Mr Alhassan Tampoli revealed that within the year “we will be deploying Automatic Tank Gauging and Stock Management and Monitoring systems at retail outlets throughout the country”.
This is to enable the NPA and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to gain “real-time view of petroleum stocks at all retail outlets in the country”.
Meanwhile, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the special guest at the launch, welcomed the move by the NPA in deploying technology to attain efficiency.
“I am informed that there are plans to enforce the use of flowmeters with temperature compensation features at all petroleum product depots and the automation of the measuring systems and processes at these depots and subsequent integration with the Enterprise Relational Database Management System (ERDMS).
“I am also informed of plans to deploy Automatic Tank Gauging and Stock Management and Monitoring Systems at retail outlets in the country.
“These systems will give the regulatory authorities such as the NPA and the GRA, real-time view of petroleum product stocks and movements at all retail outlets and depots in the country,” he noted.’’
Dr Bawumia is concerned about the illicit activities including illegal bunkering, smuggling of petroleum products and dumping of products meant for export on the local market.
“These activities constitute an emerging threat which impacts negatively on our maritime security as well as the nation’s efforts in mobilizing tax revenue from the sale of petroleum products,” Dr Bawumia noted.