By Lansana Fofanah.
The recent development at the Kissy Oil Refinery between the All Petroleum Products and the National Petroleum (SL) Ltd, should serve as a wake -up call for the Government of Sierra Leone.
Due to the proactive leadership of the Executive Chairman, Dr. Brima Baluwa Koroma, the downstream sector has manifested growth and developments in recent time as more filling stations have been commissioned across the country and new oil marketing companies have been emerging.
Amidst these developments, all the oil marketing companies are being hosted at the Kissy Oil Refinery in the Western area of the country.
The emergence of the All Petroleum Products that is currently rehabilitating the old terminal jetty and tank farms shows that in future, the Terminal will not be able to host new companies due to space and storage problems.
Since the New Direction government is focusing on opening the downstream sector, Pepel, Bonthe, and Solima could serve as potential jetties for oil marketers.
According to statistics at the Petroleum Regulatory Agency, hundreds of fuel tankers ply from the provinces to take supply at the terminal in Freetown. This signifies that some tankers may take days before delivering products at their various stations in the provinces.
“Abdulai Kargbo, a tanker driver narrated the ordeal they go through on a daily basis. “We leave our families for more than two weeks when we come for supply because of the distance and rudiments we go through to get supplies,” he said.
Having a fuel jetty at Pepel will help to service stations in the North with ease and comfort. The same thing could be said of Bonthe and Solima that will be an easy hub for Moyamba, Bo, Pujehun and other districts.
In a recent interview with the Executive Chairman of the Petroleum Regulatory Agency, Dr. Brima Baluwa Koroma, he said that there is every need to decentralize the sector. “The downstream sector is rapidly growing and there is every tendency that the Kissy Terminal will be populated in future. Therefore we should be thinking of exploring jetties in other parts of the country,” he said.
To achieve the decentralization drive, Chairman Baluwa said that the Agency is looking at the potential investment opportunities in those parts of the country since the country is endowed with natural harbors.
“We operate an open door policy because our focus is to explore market opportunities for every player as that will definitely pave the way for products availability,” he said.
