Three-way co-loading dominates Ghana’s Q1 laycan slots, unsettling crude and product importers
Ghana’s first-quarter laycan allocation programme, dated 31 December 2025, is triggering pushback from a cross-section of importers who say the schedule’s growing reliance on three-party co-loading is raising operational risk and eroding certainty for supply planning.
At the centre of the discontent is a shift in how discharge windows at ABB are being shared. Multiple Q1 slots allocate a single window to three different companies, forcing them to align nominations, financing, vessel readiness, and discharge documentation in a tightly constrained timeframe, a model participants say is inherently fragile when even one-party slips.
One example is ABBTEMA3, which pairs Go Energy, Bazuka, and Reston on a PMS parcel scheduled for 04–06 February (37,000 tonnes), a three-way co-load arrangement that importers argue can turn a standard discharge window into a coordination problem with expensive consequences.
The pattern repeats across the quarter. The programme lists other ABB windows shared by three parties, including ABBTEMA1 (BPGHL, MOSL, Eagle) for PMS (29–31 January) and ABBTEMA2 (Fueltrade, PWSL, Mariaje) for AGO (01–03 February). Further down the schedule, the same approach appears in slots such as ABBTEMA5 (Sage, Dominion, Oilcorp) for PMS (10–12 February), ABBTEMA7 (Chase, Blue Ocean, Calgarth) for AGO (16–18 February), and ABBTEMA13 (Sage, Stratcon, P.K. Jegs) for PMS (11–13 March).
While co-loading is not new in Ghana’s downstream market, importers say the degree of multi-party packing matters. A move from a two-party to a three-party co-load sharply increases the probability of delays and disputes, because each additional participant adds another chain of approvals and another balance sheet that must close on time.
Industry participants point to four fault lines.
First is the nomination and cargo readiness risk. In a three-way allocation, the slowest party can become the de facto pacing factor for all, and when the window closes, a missed laycan can translate into rolled cargoes, compressed discharge sequences, or costly rescheduling.
Second is demurrage exposure. Even where demurrage is contractually allocated, the operational reality is often messier: berth time, line-up changes, and documentation bottlenecks do not always map neatly to each co-loader’s share. In practice, traders say, the result can be a series of small delays that aggregate into a high cost.
Third is quality and interface management. Co-loading typically increases the number of ship-to-shore transfers, line flushes, and product interfaces that must be tightly managed, and any deviation can become a downstream distribution problem once trucks begin loading.
Fourth is documentation sequencing, particularly when banking timelines are tight. Letters of credit, cargo release protocols, and customs processes may be straightforward for one cargo owner, but become more complex when three parties must clear in synchrony under one operational envelope.
The concerns are amplified by the Q1 programme’s built-in constraints. ABB lists a maintenance window of 25 February to 1 March, which traders say reduces flexibility if co-loading-related delays force cargoes to slide.
The programme’s broader structure also underscores how constrained the system becomes when any critical window is lost. Alongside ABB, the laycan document schedules volumes at the Tema Oil Jetty (TOJ) for LPG and other products, with activity ranging from ATK and base oil to HFO for the power sector. It also flags a 4–14 March maintenance period involving GPMS, GPHA, and TOR, another pinch point for traders modelling contingencies.
At TOJ, the programme includes large, multi-day LPG tender slots 15–19 January (25,000 tonnes), 08–13 February (25,000 tonnes), and 15–20 March (25,000 tonnes), periods that importers say already demand careful queue management because they can reshape berth availability for other movements.
A separate set of allocations at NLBT (with 10,000-tonne parcels across AGO and PMS) suggests the system is also juggling smaller lots and frequent turnarounds, an operational posture that, in the eyes of some importers, makes it even harder to absorb disruptions created by heavily co-loaded ABB windows.
Crude importers and traders who straddle both crude and refined products argue that the consequences are not limited to the PMS/AGO parcels visible in the published allocations. The programme is labelled “ABB/SPM – PMS/AGO & CRUDE”, signalling that crude-related planning sits in the same ecosystem of constrained discharge windows and operational sequencing. In that context, they say, multi-party co-loading in product windows can compound broader scheduling tightness when market conditions change or when vessels arrive out of sequence.
Behind the complaints lies a strategic worry: that a schedule built around three-way co-loading may be optimised for fitting more names into fewer windows rather than for minimising system-wide risk. Importers say the trade-off is predictable, greater fragility, more disputes over timing and cost allocation, and higher working-capital stress when discharge dates become less certain.
For policymakers and infrastructure managers, the debate lands in familiar territory. Ghana’s downstream market often operates under constraints, berth availability, maintenance cycles, and the need to allocate scarce windows across many players, and co-loading can be a pragmatic tool for throughput. But importers say pragmatism has limits: once co-loading becomes the default, the system begins to behave like a queue with too little slack.
Market participants are now pressing for practical adjustments rather than a wholesale redesign. Among the proposals circulating in the trading community are a cap on co-loaders per window, clearer priority rules when one co-loader fails to meet nomination milestones, and more transparent swap mechanisms that allow companies to trade windows to avoid three-way packs.
The pressure is likely to intensify as Q1 approaches. In a market where missed laycans can ripple into pump prices, power-sector fuel availability, and broader confidence in supply planning, importers say the issue is not merely a matter of convenience but of system reliability.
