BOST reduces trade debt to $39m; pays $585m out of $624m total trade debt
The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited according to its Managing Director (MD), Edwin Alfred Provencal, has paid $585 million of the $624 million trade debt it inherited in 2017.
The reduction of the company’s trade debt the MD disclosed at a press briefing on Sunday, was made mainly with the use of BOST’s internally generated funds (IGF) which accounted for 73 percent of the $585 million payment with the remaining 27 percent payment made by government.
According to the MD, BOST’s ability to repay the chunk of its trade debt is due to the prudent management of its resources and infrastructure thereby increasing its revenue-earning assets from 17 percent to 75 percent within two years.
Also, with support from the Energy Ministry and the National Petroleum Authority, the company resumed the export of petroleum products to landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
The $624 million trade debt the MD noted at the press briefing arose out of the company’s failure to pay its trading partners that supplied it with petroleum products.
Speaking further at the press briefing held by the Ministry of Information, Mr Provencal averred BOST had saved the nation $26 million after it conducted a forensic audit into a $37 million claim made by some eight Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs).
The amount was eventually reduced to $11 million after the forensic audit, which was in respect of petroleum products that allegedly went missing from the tanks of the national strategic company between 2009 and 2014.
Read: BoG pegs fiscal deficit at 6.1% at the end of July 2021
BOST has also paid Ghs 61 million out of the Ghs 284 million domestic debt it owed some local banks.
Mr Provencal announced that BOST would receive pipes and accessories it bought since 2011, but could not transport them home at that time.
The 12 inches pipes would en-route to Ghana from Houston, USA, by November this year, which would improve the operational efficiency of distribution of petroleum products and reduce the cost of transporting the products by 35 percent, Mr Provencal added.
The BOST MD stated that the Company’s focus currently was to improve its operational efficiency and aggressively grow its business interest, to pay dividends to its shareholders.
BOST, which has the mandate of developing and maintaining a national network of bulk storage and transportation of petroleum products, at the moment has six petroleum depots, and 51 storage tanks carrying 425,000 cubic metres of petroleum products.
It also has 361 kilometres of pipelines, four barges, a tugboat, and a booster station.
