Another reason why Kofi Adda, the Energy Minister must resign-OIL + SALT = PVC PIPES!

In what can appropriately be described as “Adda's Day of Disgrace” in Parliament House, NPP Energy Minister Joseph Adda carried samples of salt and crude oil in his hands and said that he wanted to demonstrate a clear policy difference between what existed in the country in the petroleum sub-sector before 2001 (NDC) and what pertained now (NPP).
He continued: “Before 2001, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) under the Provisional National Defence Council and National Democratic Congress government was producing salt which I hold in my left hand and after 2001, under the NPP government, we are now seeing premium quality oil.”
Mr. Adda said “Mr Speaker, the mission of GNPC is to make Ghana a leading upstream sector investment destination in West Africa that will lead to Ghana becoming a net oil and gas exporter”.
Petrochemical industry experts are so amazed at Adda's illiteracy and ignorance of the connection between oil and salt that they have joined NDC Minority Chief Whip Doe Adjaho's call for Joseph Adda to resign.
“What Joseph Adda has done as Minister of Energy is so embarrassing to the NPP as a Government and so humiliating to Ghana as a country that he should not stay in office for one day longer”, one petrochemical engineer explained.
According to him, every SSS science student knows the connection between petroleum and salt, and for Adda to carry petroleum and salt to Parliament and try to create the impression that a petroleum company such as GNPC has no business dealing in salt is simply amazing and a display of illiteracy of the highest order.
He proceeded to explain it this way.
In the Petrochemical industry, when crude oil is processed, one of the numerous by- products is Polyethylene which when treated with chlorine, a derivative from sodium chloride (NaCl) or common salt, produces the granules used in the manufacture of polyethylene vynil chlorine (PVC) out of which come PVC items such as PVC pipes, tubes and cables and other plastic items such as plastic cups, plastic bags, plastic food containers, plastic vehicles parts etc.
Crude oil and sodium chloride (salt) are therefore bedfellows. Any industrialist who wants to add value to crude oil must thus deal in salt. One cannot establish a Petrochemical industry without sodium chloride (salt) from which chlorine is obtained.
A Minister of state in the NDC Government takes up the story at this point. He explained that Nigeria produces a lot of crude oil, but it has no salt to operate a Petrochemical industry. Therefore Nigeria imports salt from Australia and Brazil.
Ghana produces a lot of salt but it has no crude oil.
In the NDC era therefore, discussions were held between the Ghana Government and the Nigerian Government on the possibility of Ghana exploiting its vast common salt resources and exporting it to Nigeria for use in their Petrochemical industry.
Since GNPC was the body importing crude oil from Nigerian, it was mandated to go into salt production. In that way GNPC could export salt to Nigeria and use the foreign exchange proceeds from the transaction to import crude oil from Nigeria.
For Energy Minister Joseph Adda to carry salt and crude oil to Parliament and attempt to ridicule GNPC that it was not focussing on its core business shows clearly that the Minister is not aware of the connection between salt and crude oil.
The Minister really displayed his ignorance and in the process embarrassed and humiliated the NPP as the Government of Ghana and the entire people of Ghana.
On the internet, one of those who lashed at Minister Adda put it this way: “A Minister is not supposed to be a technician, but a Minister is not also supposed to display his technical bankruptcy in such a dramatic manner.
Where were his technical advisers who should have advised him? They should be fired as well”.
Joseph Adda says he will not resign over the power crisis until we can prove to him that his resignation will add water to the Volta Lake. Ghana Palaver is saying that in the matter of the connection between crude oil and salt, he must resign because his resignation will enable Ghana to join the world scientific community that knows that
Oil + Salt = PVC Pipes!