The newly constructed oil jetty at the Takoradi Port is able to discharge 50,000 metric tonnes of fuel in 42 hours instead of the usual 9 days or more it takes to discharge fuel of such quantities.
In addition, the fully automated oil jetty which is the biggest and most modernised in the West African sub-region, has 5 loading arms making it possible for the jetty to discharge and load 5 different petroleum products simultaneously.
Constructed at -14 metres depth to replace the old oil jetty built at -8.4 metres depth in 1958, the new oil jetty according to Kwame Gyan, Chairman of Ibistek, has 20,000mt capacity more than Tema Port’s oil jetty.
Speaking in a interview monitored by norvanreports, Mr Gyan intimated that with the construction of the new oil jetty at the Takoradi Port, petroleum imports can directly be transported inland and into landlocked countries like Benin and Burkina Faso.
“With the new oil jetty at Takoradi, we are now able to export a lot of products from Takoradi towards the landlocked countries like Benin and Burkina Faso which has reduced the over-reliance on Tema Port’s oil jetty,” he noted.
Touching on the relevance of the new oil jetty to the country, Mr Gyan stated that with government’s plan to build a $60 billion petrochemical refinery plant in the Western Region, the new oil jetty will be of immense importance to the development of the oil and gas industry in the region.
“Because of the jetty’s ability to load petroleum products for exports, the jetty will be a platform for the development of the oil industry in the Western Region corridor. The jetty is in the position to bring in crude oil for refinery as well as for exports,” he stated.
“So really, there is no need to build a new jetty, all we need to do is to build a pipeline from the jetty manifold area to the refinery and the jetty will be able to bring in the crude as well as the refined one for exports. So the new jetty is a significant addition to the oil and gas infrastructure of Ghana,” he added.
Speaking further, Mr Gyan intimated that government should develop more refinery capacity to raise significant incomes from the country’s oil and gas resources.
“Government should develop more refinery capacity because in every part of the world primary products don’t yield any serious income, if you refine oil in significant quantities, the by products of the refinery processes alone could form the basis of this country’s industrial development because of all that we get from oil.”
“So if we sell all our oil in its primary form, we won’t make any money. We need to put in some value addition and this jetty stands tall in what we need to do to add value to our oil,” he stated.
