Lets Protect The Oil Pipelines

It is an undeniable fact that issues regarding petroleum products are of great concern to many Ghanaians, just as they are to many nations across the globe.

Those issues and how a nation manages them determine, to a large extent, the direction of its economic growth and development.

In Ghana, petrol issues were very important matters in political campaigns towards the 2008 elections.

Products whose pricing has a direct effect on the lives of every citizen are petrol and other petroleum products. For example, recent shortage of some petroleum products in some parts of the country, although short term, raised a lot of concern because of the effect the shortage could have had if it had persisted.

This is why we find reports that some crooked individuals have drilled holes in the pipeline of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited (BOST) from Tema to Akosombo to siphon petroleum products very disturbing.

The saboteurs, who, no doubt, are people with expertise in the oil sector, drill the holes and use brackets and valves to siphon the products which are loaded onto tankers hundreds of metres away and the ill-gotten fuel passed on to conniving fuel station owners.

The 61-kilometre, six-inch pipeline, built in the 1990s to transport petroleum products from Tema to Akosombo for dispatch to Buipe, has reportedly had seven holes drilled by these shameless people, leading to the loss of about 780,000 litres of fuel in 2010 and 2011.

As a result of the activities of these thieves, BOST had to suspend the use of the pipeline, which normally would offer a safer and cheaper means of transporting petroleum products from Buipe to the northern part of the country.

This has led to BOST now spending GHC200,000 to transport the products by road monthly, whereas it would have cost GHC25,000 to do same using the pipeline.

This is unacceptable.
We are happy to note that the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) are collaborating with BOST to patrol the pipeline, a collaboration which has enabled BOST to save over GHC475,000 monthly since October last year.

It is important to note that this activity takes place in the full glare of some members of the communities along the pipeline who, as citizens of the nation, must be concerned about the thievery going on around them. They must be ready to give tip-offs about the movement of suspicious persons and tankers to the security agencies because, as the Director of Public Relations of the GAF, Col Mbawine Atintande, put it, “They should know that these activities are sabotage on the country.”

The communities ought to understand that the activities of these unscrupulous persons, apart from leading to losses, also have the potential to bring about fire outbreaks that could have dire consequences for the communities and the nation as a whole.

Owners of filling stations who connive with these nation wreckers must also be drastically dealt with when caught to serve as a deterrent to those who would encourage such practices.

As for the perpetrators of the act, the least said about them, the better. The law should be applied without mercy when they are found out

We encourage the GAF to intensify their patrols for the activities of these nation wreckers to be nipped in the bud.