Don't Panic! -Yaw Akoto

The Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery, Dr. Yaw Akoto, has advised motor vehicle owners to stop panic buying because "everything is under control".

Speaking to The Accra Daily Mail at the weekend, he said the refinery is functioning normally and so there is no need for the public to fear that there is a shortage. He said it is normally the excess demand created by panic buying that leads to a rush on the service centres. He said there was a delay in the berthing of a tanker carrying crude for refining, but assured the public that, "You can tell your readers that we are in control and they do not have to rush to buy fuel. We have already delivered a lot of product into the system and by Monday, everything should be back to normal."

A fuel tanker with 27,000 metric tonnes of petrol docked at the oil berth at the Tema harbour last Friday to off set any possible fuel shortage in the country.

Mr Robert B. Forson, Deputy Managing Director, Operations of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), told the Ghana News Agency on Friday, "We are reaching all filling stations by this week-end. To enable us to achieve this, we are working full day on Saturday to enable tankers to go out." The Managing Director, Dr. Akoto confirmed this last Saturday when he gave his interview to The Accra Daily Mail. "As you can see," he said, "We are working all out."

The tanker should have docked at the port on April 1, but she arrived on Thursday and berthed on Friday. Mr Forson has also denied that TOR has been reducing the quantity of fuel sent to filling stations as is being claimed by some fuel station managers.

It was because "we had foresight that made us pump enough fuel into the system before we went on the long Easter holidays."

Meanwhile, the raging war between the Israelis and Palestinians has sent real panic around the globe that the price of crude would hit the roof as it did in the seventies. There have been upward movements in the price of crude as a result of the fighting. Hard line Arab leaders like Saddam Hussein would like Israel and her Western allies punished with sharp increases in the price of crude. Should that happen, HIPC countries like Ghana would be the hardest hit.

It would perhaps be wise if Ghanaians braced themselves for increases in the not too distant future. The media in Europe and America it seems are expecting that the Arab oil producing countries would turn off the taps, with the Daily Express declaring on its front page last Friday that "OIL PRICE INCREASES WILL KILL US ALL".

The Tema Oil Refinery is expected to commission a new unit any time from now - Residual Fuel Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) - which would make it more efficient and more competitive.