This decision comes after the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) and the Institute for Energy Security (IES) urged the Authority to cease operations at the Oil Refinery owing to alleged illicit activity.
In a statement, COPEC and IES voiced worry over the refinery’s activities without the appropriate NPA authorization, as well as the suspected provision of poor fuel to Ghanaians.
According to the NPA Act of 2005, all entities engaging in commercial operations in the downstream sector of the industry must get a permission from the board prior to operation.
Despite this, COPEC and IES believe Sentuo has failed to get the essential permissions for oil processing and selling.
Ubeidalah Saed, the NPA’s Head of Quality Control, stated in an interview that they are now evaluating the items delivered to various filling stations.
He also added that the Authority is in talks with the Refinery to figure out the future actions.
“We are still having discussions with them as to what really led to that because the normal modus operandi of the NPA Quality Assurance system is that we grant you approval based on the values of the certificate then we follow up physically just to do a random check just to ascertain that indeed the purported quality on the paper i what it is.”
“We have suspended the sale of that particular product…Particularly we are looking at all the filling stations that have been affected. We will be able to get the total outlook and come and make a very meaningful conclusion.”
Meanwhile, in a statement made on Thursday, the NPA underlined that it was inaccurate and alarming for the IES and COPEC to assert that “out-of-specification products are reported as causing damage to vehicles and machinery.”
“No such damage to vehicles has occurred as the defect has to do with high vapour pressure,” it added.
