NPA taps India expertise for cylinder recirculation

A team of technical officials from the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was on a three-day visit in Ghana.

The team, led by the Chief General Manager for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Co-ordination at the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Mr Manish Grover, were to assist the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to incorporate lessons from India's experience into Ghana's new LPG policy.

He was accompanied by Mr Vikas Kumar, Deputy General Manager (LPG Operations); Mr Brajesh Kumar, Deputy General Manager (LPG Engineering); Mr Naro Tundup, Deputy General Manager (Bottling Plant); and Mr Vikas Gupta, Chief Area Manager (LPG Sales); all at IOCL.

The team, during its stay, paid working visits to Tema Oil Jetty, Tema Oil Refinery, LPG storage facilities in Tema, Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company, and some LPG retail centres in and near Accra to interact with the dealers, distributors and consumers.

They also met with officials of the Energy Ministry.

Addressing, the Chief Executive of NPA, Alhassan Tampuli said government constituted the National LPG Implementation Committee to plan, oversee and ensure the smooth and successful implementation of the new policy.

He said the committee was working together with the Indian government to provide a "technical backstopping" towards the implementation of the policy.

That, he mentioned, led to the delegation from India "to study the current LPG value chain to enable them provide technical support for the implementation of the new LPG distribution model."

The decision for the implementation follows a cabinet decision which offered a roadmap for the country to phase out the existing model of supplying gas to consumers, which some say is responsible for some of the unfortunate explosions in the country, the latest being the Atomic Junction one in 2017.