BOST pays US$585 million trade debt within four years - Managing Director

The management of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited, has paid US$585 million of its US$624 million trade debt it inherited in 2017 via Internally-Generated Funds over the past four years.

Edwin Alfred Provencal, the Managing Director of BOST, who announced this at the Minister's briefing, in Accra, on Sunday, said the Company's trade debt now stood at $39 million, saying that 73 percent of the debt was paid through its IGF while the government paid 27 percent.

The trade debt was incurred due to BOST's failure to pay its trading partners that supplied it with petroleum products.

Additionally, due to the prudent management of its resources and infrastructure, BOST had increased its revenue-earning assets from 17 per cent to 75 percent within two years.

With support from the Energy Ministry and the National Petroleum Authority, it had resumed the export of petroleum products to landlocked countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

Meanwhile, BOST had saved the nation US$26 million after it conducted a forensic audit into a US$37 million claim made by some eight Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs).

The amount was eventually reduced to US$11 million after the forensic audit, which was in respect of petroleum products that allegedly went missing from the tanks of the national strategic company between 2009 and 2014.

BOST has also paid GHc61 million out of the GHc284 million domestic debt it owed some local banks.

Provencal announced that BOST would receive pipes and accessories it bought since 2011, but could not transport them home at that time.

The 12 inches pipes would en-route to Ghana from Houston, USA, by November this year, which would improve the operational efficiency of distribution of petroleum products and reduce the cost of transporting the products by 35 percent, Provencal added.

The BOST MD stated that the Company's focus currently was to improve its operational efficiency and aggressively grow its business interest, to pay dividends to its shareholders.

BOST, which has the mandate of developing and maintaining a national network of bulk storage and transportation of petroleum products, at the moment has six petroleum depots, and 51 storage tanks carrying 425,000 cubic metres of petroleum products.

It also has 361 kilometres of pipelines, four barges, a tugboat, and a booster station.