National Petroleum Authority, Ghana

After days of shortages of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in parts of the country, the public may be heaving a sigh of relief as a consignment of 5,000 metric tons of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) arrived at the Jetty of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) late Tuesday night. The vessel has since berthed and commenced discharging the product to the storage tanks of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
Arrival of the vessel which is long over-due was initially expected to arrive last Sunday. The same vessel had arrived a week earlier on schedule with LPG on board but was unable to discharge due to leakages on the pipelines of TOR. After several unsuccessful attempts to discharge, the vessel left Tema with the hope of returning last Sunday to deliver the remaining products having discharged only 1,300 metric tons of LPG of the 5000 metric tons.
The shortage was such that long queues of empty cylinders and commercial vehicles were seen at LPG sales points in many parts of the country. Many commercial vehicles’ demand for LPG had further aggravated the shortage situation with long queues for LPG. The commercial vehicles, mostly taxis have found LPG to be a cheaper substitute for super and diesel, perhaps cashing in on the government’s subsidies on the LPG.
Following the arrival of the 5000 metric on of LPG, similar consignments are scheduled to arrive on the 19th of March and subsequently the week after. These arrangements are being coordinated by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to ensure that the backlog of supply is cleared before the country resumes its normal consumption of LPG.