Government has expressed optimism that the diversion and stealing of subsidized fuel will be greatly reduced with the introduction of a new monitoring system known as the Petroleum Product Marking Scheme.
The system uses a special marker to trace quantities of petroleum products at all operational depots in the country prior to distribution to the market.
According to the National Petroleum Authority, NPA, the Petroleum Product Marking Scheme will have a marker that will help to distinguish the various types of petroleum products and expose dilution of products in the country.
Demonstrating how the scheme works, the NPA explained that the marker works by testing samples of petroleum products at all retail outlets and bulk consumers across the country with proprietary analytical devices which detect additions.
Speaking at the launch of the new system at the National Petroleum Authority, the Chief Of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare said government hopes to reduce losses in the petroleum industry by a significant margin to protect those who really need the subsidies.
“It will interest you to know that the extent of violation in the petroleum industry translated into an estimated revenue loss and diverted subsidies in excess of 50 million cedis in 2013 alone” she said.
She explained that the phenomenon continued to 2018 when government was losing billions of cedis.
She urged the Oil Marketing Companies, OMCs, as well as the Bulk Oil Distributors to help the NPA to end the canker.
A Deputy Minister for Energy, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, stated that since the Nana Addo government assumed power, it has worked at digitizing the operations of the NPA to reduce human interactions which lead to corruption.
“For government, the best way to reduce these malpractices in the petroleum downstream sector is to digitize all activities to limit the human interactions”
The Chief Executive of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Senyo Hosi, disclosed that already his outfit is undertaking a self-assessment exercise to help reduce or eliminate diversion in the petroleum industry which is worth billions of cedis.