Page 10 - AfrOil Week 43 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Ghana to streamline bitumen production

GHANA THE head of Ghana’s National Petroleum different specifications,” she commented. “For
Authority (NPA) has said his agency is pre- Ghana, it’s about your requirements. If you
pared to ensure that bitumen used for road require the American standard, we will produce
construction of roads meets the relevant quality for you. So we can produce [to] both American
standards. and European specifications.”
According to Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Over the years, SMB has established strate-
the CEO of the NPA, officials in Accra have gic partnerships with Vivo Energy (UK) and a
developed a draft licensing framework and subsidiary of TotalEnergies (France) for bitu-
operational guidelines for efficient regulation of men deliveries to the Ghanaian market. It is
the Ghanaian bitumen industry. He announced also working with Ghana Oil Co. (GOIL) on the
this during a working visit to the Société Mul- joint construction of a 6,000 tonne per year (tpy)
tinationale de Bitumes (SMB) refinery in Côte bitumen processing plant in Tema, the Ghana-
d’Ivoire. ian Times noted.
Abdul-Hamid said his visit to SMB had Currently, Ghana’s bitumen market is not
helped him develop a first-hand understand- regulated. The government formed a committee
ing of the operations of the bitumen industry in 2017 with the goal of streamlining the oper-
from the refinery to its usage and to study qual- ations of bitumen marketers and enabling the
ity assurance practices slated for adoption by NPA to start the process of regulating bitumen
bitumen facilities in Ghana. NPA will be able consumption. ™
to apply these lessons to finalise all existing
draft frameworks and guidelines necessary for
streamlining the bitumen industry in Ghana,
he said.
“Besides the learning experience, the visit in
[the] long run would be beneficial to both coun-
tries in strengthening the business ties between
the two organisations,” he added.
SMB’s newly appointed director-general
Josephine Marie Sidebe assured Abdul-Ha-
mid that the plant was committed to supplying
Ghana with the best quality of bitumen for road
construction. The plant is capable of turning
out material that meets the requirements of any
country on the continent, she added.
“Unfortunately, most of the countries have SMB works with European companies to deliver bitumen to Ghana (Image: SMB)

Nigeria sets up two new agencies

to oversee oil and gas sector

NIGERIA THE Nigerian government has made major Meanwhile, he stated, the Nigerian Downstream
changes to the line-up of agencies responsible and Midstream Petroleum Regulatory Author-
for overseeing the oil and gas industry, in line ity (NPRA) will assume the duties previously
with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry performed by the Petroleum Equalisation Fund
Act (PIA) passed earlier this year. (PEF) and the Petroleum Products Pricing Reg-
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources ulatory Agency (PPPRA).
Timipre Sylva announced the changes last The minister expressed optimism about the
week, noting that Abuja had established two changes, saying he expected the creation of the
new institutions to monitor and regulate the new bodies to benefit the hydrocarbon sector. “I
country’s hydrocarbon industry. One of these, am really expecting a lot of growth and develop-
he explained, is the Nigerian Upstream Regula- ment in the oil industry,” he said. “The industry
tory Commission (NURC), which will replace [has stagnated] for a long time because the pro-
the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). cess of passing the PIA [took] over 20 years.”

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 27•October•2021