Massive stealing at TOR as 7 tankers escape without pay fee

The facts are here and no one can engage in spin. Daily Post can confirm that seven tankers loaded with fuel (diesel) at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) on Friday 25th June, 2010 returned three days later with the product after the three Oil Marketing Companies, OMCs, they were meant for rejected them because they were contaminated with water and black oil.

The three OMCs are Oando, Goil and Nasona. Intel sources at the refinery told this paper that the return of the contaminated fuel is evidence that stealing of fuel products is going on on a grand scale at the refinery.

According to the sources, it is not possible for tankers at TOR to be loaded with contaminated products.

“After crude is refined, real oil is kept at the Storage Tank. The contents of the Storage Tank are then moved to the Delivery Tank which has two outlets; one for water to gush out and the other for real oil to be withdrawn.

“After water is allowed to gush out into the Waste Tank, it is now the job for Laboratory Technicians to take specimen from the Delivery Tank for testing to ascertain whether it still contains water or not.

“When the technicians give the go-ahead that what is in the Delivery Tank is pure refined oil, the contents are then pumped into another container called the Marketing Tank from where the tankers can be loaded. It is only when the Laboratory technicians are convinced of the purity of the fuel that tankers are loaded with oil.

“So it is a blatant lie that tankers are loaded with contaminated fuel at TOR. That is not possible,” the source added. Yet, that was exactly what was alleged to have happened with the return of the seven oil tankers with the contaminated fuel. Can you believe this?”

The seven tankers that were loaded with stolen diesel are as follows;

· GR 9488 Z 31,500 litres of diesel,
· GR 9493 Z ,18,000 litres
· GW 2594 09,36,000 litres
· GN 1386 Y, 27,000 litres
· AS 1155-10, 27,000 litres
· UE 577 X 40,000 litres
· GT 9225 P 27,000 litres
The contaminated fuel the tankers returned with three days later ie Monday 28th June was poured into the Separator Unit for reprocessing.

In all, a total of 216,000 litres of diesel vanished from the refinery with the proceeds ending in private pockets. Daily Post checks have established that the seven tankers in question were reloaded on the orders of the thieving clique at TOR with another diesel consignment on Monday 28th June, 2010.

Because there is no proper security set up at the refinery, it is business as usual for the selfish cabal operating there. Additionally, the members of the mafia are planning to oppose moves to put in adequate security to police operations.

TOR has been in the news since the Mills government came to power because the Kufuor-led NPP government left it in a near state of collapse ostensibly with a view to sell it to themselves as they did with Ghana Airways.

In spite of the billions of dollars that accrued from the Petroleum Recovery Levy placed on petroleum products by the NPP government, the TOR debt shot up to very alarming proportions. This made it almost impossible for the refinery to raise Letters of Credit to import crude oil.

Though the Mills government has paid a huge chunk of the debt, inefficient management is still the bane of the refinery as the reorganization of all sectors of the refinery is not forth coming.

Daily Post sources say management was so much devastated over the contaminated fuel report yesterday that it quickly demanded an urgent action on it.

By Livingstone Pay Charlie