Govt not subsidising GOIL - Seth Terkper
The Finance Minister, Mr Seth Terkper, has debunked suggestions that the government is paying subsidies to the Ghana Oil company limited, GOIL.
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Addressing the company’s annual staff awards and dinner night in Accra, Mr Terkper noted that it was rather the government that owed the company and commended the company’s leading role in being the mainstay of fuel supply to the security agencies.
He also lauded the company for its leading role in stabilising the market.
The finance minister noted that the country needed stronger indigenous oil marketing companies and asked the players in the industry to up their game and strengthen their capital base to be able to rub shoulders with other multinationals in the face of stiff competition within the sector.
He urged GOIL to partner the Ghana Infrastructural Fund to construct more fuel tanks to, among other things, position Ghana as a critical transit point to supply fuel to other countries in the subregion.
The Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of GOIL, Mr Patrick A.K. Akorli, said work on the 13.5 million litre Marine Gas Oil tanks at the Takoradi Port would be completed in the first quarter of 2017 so as to open avenues for bigger vessels to be bunkered.
He announced the company’s intention to construct a bitumen plant in Tema next year to serve the growing construction industry.
Mr Akorli lauded the efforts of the board, management and staff, as well as other partners for their contributions to the various laurels that the company had chalked up. GOIL won over seven prestigious awards, including the 2015 CIMG Petroleum Company of the Year and the Marketing man of the year. The company was also recognised as the Ghana Club 100 number two company and the 2015 Best Listed Company of the Year on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
Long-serving staff and service station attendants and supervisors whose invaluable contributions have brought success to the company were also awarded.
They included the group CEO/MD, Mr Akorli, and the Finance Manager, Mr Erasmus Ofori Sarkwa, who have both served GOIL for 20 years. Mr Danso, who has served the company for 30 years, was also honoured.