…‘It’s coming on next month’
It has emerged that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has been working with key stakeholders in its quest to implement the Cylinder Recirculation Model (CRM) Programme in September, this year.
Amongst them are the bottling plants owners, the LGP marketers and the liquefied gas operators association. They meet every two weeks to work towards the implementation of the policy.
This came to light during The Herald’s interaction with the Deputy Chief Executive of NPA, Perry Okudzeto. The NPA, he said cannot wait any longer.
It is, therefore, not true that the stakeholder engagement and consultation had been missing in the ongoing discussion to rollout the policy which has been on table since 2013 and continued under Alhassan Tampuli Sulemana, as NPA boss from 2017, until he left office to become the MP for the Gushegu Constituency January 2021.
The Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Marketers Association, had kicked against plans by the NPA to implement the Cylinder Re-circulation Model, arguing that the September date is too early for the policy’s implementation and could lead to misunderstandings.
It has further emerged that, the four companies are ready with the LPG bottling facilities established in Accra and Kumasi to ensure the certified cylinders filled with gas are made available to consumers upon demand when the policy starts rolling next month.
The four companies, include Blue Ocean, New Gas, Goil and one other.
The association, had insisted on the need for intensified public education before a complete roll-out.
But, Mr Okudzeto insisted that the consultations are still ongoing and that the NPA is ready to allow the existing LPG stations to continue with their operations until the Cylinder Re-circulation Model takes full shape. This, he said the NPA, can do at least for two years.
Gabriel Kumi, the Vice President of the LPG Marketers Association, had claimed on Eyewitness News on Citi FM that the confusion surrounding the model, indicates that the NPA should proceed cautiously.
“NPA has set next month for the implementation, and so we have less than a month and the public confusion indicates that consumers are not ready and so there is a need to educate the public on the model so that we don’t confuse the public in the roll-out of the model.”
“The current system is so entrenched that if you want to introduce a new system, you just don’t throw the old one out and suddenly introduce the new one, we have to do that slowly. Our initial discussion was that we should buy back all cylinders in the system because there are a lot of them out there that are obsolete and need to be changed, and it will be difficult to tell them to simply discard them and get new ones in anticipation of the model’s roll-out.”
“Not until last week that the NPA had a press conference, I did not know the Ghana Card was going to be used in the policy’s implementation. There is little education on this policy, and so we have to take our time to ensure the people understand the policy before it is implemented, and we can even give ourselves up until January 2024 to roll it out,” Mr. Kumi further lamented.
Earlier, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, said all is set to roll out the programme next month.
He said under the CRM, residents of Accra and other selected parts of the country, do not have to own a cylinder to use Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for domestic and commercial activities.
“Filled LPG cylinders will be kept at exchange points for customers to pay for the content and pick up the filled cylinders after registering with their National Identity Card”.
The implementation of the CRM, he said, would be spearheaded by the NPA and its partners under the supervision of the Ministry of Energy.
Briefing the media on the planned implementation of the CRM in Accra, Mr Okudzeto, said the programme would be rolled out in September in Accra and Kumasi and would gradually spread across the country.
He said the CRM would run side by side with the current distribution model until it was phased out as a 50-member committee was working on the CRM.
He said the LPG Marketing Companies had representation on the committee and their inputs had been factored into the framework.
“All industry players have been engaged, their ideas have been taken on board and the framework has been designed with their input and are ready to offer their support to ensure the success of the project,” he stressed.
Mr Okudzeto, said the implementation of the CRM was to ensure that at least 50 per cent of Ghanaians have access to safe, clean and environmentally friendly LPG by 2030.
“It is also meant to improve access to LPG, improve safety in the distribution of LPG and increase adoption of LPG.
“Additionally, it is a policy shift to stop the unnecessary loss of lives and property as well as gas filling stations, mostly due to human error.”
Mr Okudzeto, explained that per the CRM policy, cylinders procured from manufacturing companies would be sent to Bottling Plants to be filled.
The filled cylinders will be transported in bulk to exchange depots for holding and sorting before transporting them in quantities to cylinder exchange points where consumers could register and pay for any quantity for domestic and commercial consumption.
“Specialised trucks will be used to transport the filled cylinders from the bottling plants to the retail stations or exchange points, where consumers will exchange their empty cylinders for filled ones”.
The deputy CEO of NPA, said the registration with the Ghana card at the exchange points was necessary to have data on consumers for traceability and the programme had been well piloted, the system streamlined and the infrastructure put in place to ensure the safe delivery and use of LPG across the operational areas.
“The NPA commissioned a pilot programme with the existing infrastructure. The pilot programme was done in the Eastern Region around the Kwaebibem area, in Ashanti Region in the Obuasi zone and then in the Northern Region in the Yendi zone. The programme taught us quite a number of lessons and that has gone into shaping the framework for the implementation of the new policy,” he said.
He said four CRM Bottling facilities – GOIL Bottling Plant in Tema and Kumasi, as well as the Blue Ocean and Newgas facilities were ready to take off.
APPEB Cylinder Manufacturing Company in Awutu Senya, SIGMA Cylinder Manufacturing Company in Accra and the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company at Spintex, which will be producing the cylinders to be distributed nationwide, are also ready for the rollout.
“So far, since 2017, the first step had been to construct bottling plants that will be the main pivot around which the policy will operate since under the new policy, cylinders are going to be filled with LPG and sent to exchange points for distribution,” Mr Okudjeto stressed.
