Finance

PHDC to leverage AfCFTA to meet petroleum products demands in Africa

Takoradi,- The Petroleum Hub Development Corporation (PHDC) is poised to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)to meet the demands for Petroleum products on the continent.

Currently, Africa depends on imports for more than 51 per cent of its Petroleum and petrochemical products.

But speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Charles Owusu, CEO of the PHDC, said the hub was determined to meet the anticipated demand.

Mr Owusu, who was speaking about plans of Ghana’s Petroleum Hub to leverage Africa’s demand for imported refined fuels, said that three refineries, each of them with a capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) would be built as part of the project.

Additionally, he said there would be five multi-purpose plants to produce lubricants, fertilizers and cosmetics, depending on the needs of the market, with a 90,000 barrels of oil per day capacity each.

“We are expecting three of these petrochemical plants to be fed with gas, and two to be fed with crude oil,” he said.

“As we speak now, there are a lot of countries in the Sub-Region that are dependent on us for Petroleum products, especially the landlocked ones”.

“The idea is that each refinery will start at 300,000 bpd but should be able to expand to 500,000 bpd by 2030 or 2035. That means the Hub’s minimum capacity is 900,000 bpd but this could be expanded to 1.5 million bpd,” he added.

“As of 2016, annual consumption in the Sub-Region was about 30 million tonnes, with 62 per cent of that consumed by Nigeria, followed by Ghana and Senegal,” he said.

Mr Owusu also spoke about plans to woo investors and said the Government would provide both economic and regulatory incentives such as corporate tax exemptions and waivers to investors.

He assured investors of a robust and stable legal and regulatory system, opportunity to repatriate profits and dividends and double taxation agreements.

Mr Owusu noted that Ghana had a conducive business environment with a skilled workforce, stable macroeconomic and political conditions and a strategic location that easily connected to markets for petroleum products.

He said the key infrastructure within the Hub –such as refineries, storage facilities, petrochemical plants, jetties and port infrastructure would be solely private sector investments under a build, own and operate model.

The ancillaries, he said, would be done through joint ventures between the government through PHDC and the private sector.

Source: Ghana News Agency