Energy expert, Kojo Poku, has disclosed that the shortage of fuel at some fuel stations in the country isn’t a nationwide problem but peculiar to Goil Company Ltd.
According to him, due to the easter holiday, businesses shut down and also within that period, Goil as a company was not working. Owing to this, he explained that the shortages that occurred at the fuel stations could have only been resolved on a working day.
Mr Poku however indicated that although the holiday season wasn’t the main problem for the shortage, it is a contributing factor as the team at Goil couldn’t swiftly deal with it until resumption of work.
“The shortage is purely peculiar to Goil. Goil is having a shortage because they have not received the RON95 that they were scheduled to receive over the Easter period…”
Kojo Poku
Challenges encountered by Goil in addressing fuel shortage
Mr Poku revealed that Goil equally suffered some coincidental challenges at the point of offloading the RON95 petrol. He explained that at the time of offloading, government also had to offload some crude for VRA to help with the loadshedding challenges the country was experiencing.
“There was a ship loaded with RON95 which is petrol, to be offloaded and the government has also bought crude oil that they were supposed to offload to VRA during the Aboase-Ghana Gas shutdown. Now, when these big tankers are offloading, they take a bit of time. So, that is what has caused the tanker which came in with the RON95 offloading later than it should have.
“If it wasn’t that that had happened, we would not have seen this problem that Goil had. So, it’s a peculiar problem with Goil because there’s a lot of CMS in the system but it’s RON91. Goil sells RON95 so they have just taken delivery over the last couple of days of the RON95 and by today or tomorrow, this shortage issue will go away.”
Kojo Poku
Commenting on whether Goil was proactive in its release of statement to clarify the reason for shortages at its pumps, Mr Poku stated that the Company did its best under the circumstances. He further iterated that the shutdown of businesses during the holidays also posed some hurdles for Goil to take immediate action.
Furthermore, the energy expert urged Ghanaians to resort to other means of getting fuel for their cars by patronizing from different fuel vendors once their area of priority is low on the product. He emphasized that Goil is not the only filling station in the country and there is the need for consumers to consider other options.
“We should stop this obsession with buying fuel from just one filling station – there are tons of fuel stations in the country. If you can’t get from Goil, buy from another person. Why do we have to insist on buying from Goil? I honestly don’t see how we want to be in that situation. Initially, people were trying to make it look like it’s a nationwide problem…”
Kojo Poku
It will be recalled that Goil on April 12, 2023, revealed that the recent fuel shortage experienced by consumers at some of its stations across the country was as a result of operational challenges occasioned by supply disruptions.
Following this, it apologized for the inconvenience caused to consumer and stated that over two million liters will be dispatched soon. Goil noted that it intends to release more stocks to the affected stations to help address shortages.
