Govt increases premix supply

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August 18, 2009

THE government has directed a further increase in the distribution of premix fuel from 50 tankers per week to 80 tankers per week.
The move is to meet the demands of fishermen for the current bumper season. Each vehicle carries 13,500 litres of fuel, and it is expected that with the increase, more fishermen would have access to the commodity.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Energy, Mr Michael Akwasi Sarpong, who made this known to the Daily Graphic, said the new blue premix fuel, announced by the government, was due to be out yesterday Monday, August 17, 2009.
He said although the distribution of the new fuel was to begin last Monday, August 10, 2009, that could not be possible because of a little hitch with the suppliers.
He said effective August 24, 2009, tankers without the inscription ‘premix’ would not be allowed to load premix fuel from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
Mr Sarpong said the branding of the vehicles was expected to take two weeks and that each of the 121 landing beaches was to determine which Oil Marketing Company or tanker to do business with.
As part of the new measures to eliminate the diversion of premix fuel for other purposes, he said, manual checks, one of the new measures announced, was ongoing and that the checks started from TOR to the vehicle’s final destination.
The government last week introduced new measures to check diversion and smuggling of premix fuel.
The measures, which were to take effect from Monday, August 10, 2009, involve the colouring of premix fuel blue; branding vehicles that transport the product with the inscription ‘Premix Fuel’ for easy identification; electronic tracking of vehicles that transport the product and on-the-spot inspection.
Meanwhile, fishermen have welcomed the introduction of the new measures, saying they would go a long way to eliminate the abuse of the product.
They said the period of shortage of the product created problems for them.
The Executive Secretary of the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council, Nii Abeo Kyerekuanda IV, told the Daily Graphic last week that the regular supply of premix was critical to the operation of fishermen.
He expressed the hope that there would be constant supply of the commodity for them to benefit fully from the bumper season, since it will take another year for this opportunity to present itself again.