Many Ghanaians, especially automobile users, who mostly use gas as their main source of fuel, are facing acute shortage of gas across the country.
Godwin Agbe, a taxi driver with over 12 years experience said “this is the worse time in my life since I started driving.”
The domestic gas users also move from one gas station to the other with their containers, popularly referred to as ‘cylinder’-probably because of the shape, but they are met with the ‘No Gas’ sign.
Jonathan Baidoo, who works at the Anyaa gas station in the Ga East Municipality was seen relaxing in a chair on Wednesday afternoon at a time when every employee is expected to be busy at work.
He said “we have always been the last resort for people when gas run out of the system but now we have not had any supply for three weeks.”
At another gas station, customers had lined up with their empty cylinders hoping to get the product while others have taken the phone numbers of the attendants.
“I receive phone calls from all sorts of people but I keep telling them to call the next day. I am not sure when we will get supply but we are in constant contact with the delivers.”
At the Odogornor gas station, Sarah Mobi said, “The supply has been erratic, we run out shortly after getting a supply because of the shortage and then we come to square one and we have no idea when the next one will come.
After failing to report at her workplace for two consecutive days, Sarah decided to buy two gas containers for her family which depend on gas for cooking, heating food and sometimes lighting.
She is however happy the shortage has not caused an increase in prices at the gas stations.
“I have always feared that a gas shortage would cause a jump in the prices but I am glad it is not occurring here in Ghana. The institutions responsible for the regular and frequent supply of this essential good must resolve this problem once and for all.”
The supply interruptions are becoming more frequent and increasingly difficult to manage but government says it is putting in place a comprehensive programme to solve the problem.
The various agencies responsible for gas importation, storage and delivery say the shortage can be attributed to the rise in the usage and demand of consumers especially the increasing usage of the product by commercial taxi drivers.
Experts have however called for the opening of separate terminals for commercial users who would have to pay more money than domestic users.
Taxi drivers have reacted sharply to the proposal for separate gas terminals to distinguish between domestic and commercial users.
Bright Koomson, a taxi driver who had to abandon his vehicle at Odorkor to carry his empty cylinder to Burma Camp said, “The proposal will not solve the problem.”
With his shirts drenched in sweat, Mr. Koomson explained that he converted from the use of petrol to gas after a friend told him it was more affordable “but my sweat can tell you that I am losing more than I have bargained for.”
The father of two used to fill his fuel tank with GH¢20 worth of diesel before setting out for work every day “but with the gas shortage I spend less than GH¢10 and it made life a bit easy for me.”
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) noted that the constant shortage of LPG is as a result of the lack of adequate storage facilities.
Data available at the Ministry of Energy show that the nation needs 1,000 metric cubic tons of gas to meet its daily consumption.
According to the National Petroleum Authority, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), which is the only LPG production facility in the country, produces just a fraction of the daily consumption.
Part of the problem has been blamed on the nation’s inability to establish a gas processing plant after it discovered oil in commercial quantities.
It is indeed sad that after several months of drilling oil from the Jubilee oilfield, which have 600 million barrels of proven reserves and a potential for about 1.5 billion barrels of oil, the nation continues to flare the associated gas.
Apart from the waste and loss in revenue, the emission of dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere, could pose serious health problems to Ghanaians and also contribute to global warming.
That is why some people have called for the immediate construction of a national gas processing plant to make gas a major source of energy in Ghana
However, Alex Mould, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NPA, indicated that the recent shortage of LPG on the market is as a result of improper distribution of the product.
“The NPA is going to be very strict on distributors to ensure that they obey the rules and regulations so that we will be able to alleviate some of the problems Ghanaians are facing.”
After touring TOR with some journalists to acquaint himself with the LPG situation at the refinery, Mr. Mould explained that Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has tanks that can take 6,500 metric tonnes while the refinery can only produce 250 tonnes a day.
The NPA boss revealed that his outfit was considering how the jetty, the pipe lines and the tanks at TOR could be expanded, adding that it was also planning to build another storage depot outside Tema since the jetty at Tema is the only one in the country.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) at NPA, Yaro Kasambata is optimistic the frequent gas shortages could be minimized, if not eliminated, if the storage and distribution of LPG is decentralized.
Labour experts estimate that the shortage of gas is costing the nation millions of cedis as a people leave their jobs to search for gas.
However, several people, especially operatives in the charcoal industry, producers and truck drivers, middlemen who buy from the producers and sellers have taken advantage of the situation to make huge profits.
By Emelia Ennin published on the Business Guide website wwww.businessguideghana.com
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