Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority, Alhassan Tampuli says only Ghanaian nationals will be given the license to operate under the Gas re-circulation programme.
He said the decision was a response to the downstream local policy which permits local people to operate in the petroleum sector.
Mr Tampuli who was speaking at sensitization workshop on the gas cylinder recirculation model stated that about 18 local people have applied for license to operate under the recirculation programme but there is also one foreigner who has applied for license to operate as free-zone.
He added that under this method, Ghana will begin to export filled gas cylinders to neighbouring African countries to generate income instead of exporting only empty cylinders.
The NPA CEO explained further that the model which is about to be rolled out will wipe out existing operators because the current players are the ones around which the policy will revolve.
The NPA, he says, will write to all those operating now to submit new applications for permit to operate under the recirculation model.
Under the new policy, there will be recall for all old cylinders for new ones at a free cost.
There will be eighteen bottling points and each point will be expected to fill about thousand cylinders per hour.
No jobs will be lost under the policy, according to the NPA rather, more jobs are going to be added to the existing ones.
Government in September, 2017 announced the introduction of a gas cylinder re-circulation policy to develop a safe and standard market-based structure for LPG. Government intends to use the the model as the basis for marketing domestic LPG to enhance the capacity of existing regulatory institutions in order to meet the regulatory requirements of the new market structure.
It was also meant to ensure the existence of robust and standard Health, Safety and Environmental practices in the production, marketing and consumption of LPG.Indian government, AFDB support Ghana in implementing Cylinder Recirculation Model – NPA
Source Ghana web