The Bolgatanga Depot of the Bulk Oil and Storage Transport (BOST), which has been redundant for the past nine years was on Monday re-commissioned after undergoing a series of refurbishment.

The reopening of the Depot which was built in 1990 is purposely to serve as the export terminals to countries in the Sahelian such as Burkina Faso, Mali and other countries which hitherto took their oil supply from the Tema Depot.

Addressing the ceremony in Bolgatanga Mr Kingsley Kwame Awuah- Darko, Managing Director of BOST said the reopening of the Depot would halt or minimise smuggling as well as the destruction to roads caused by heavy tankers plying on them from the Sahelian countries.

He said BOST invested close to 150 million dollars in the construction of the pipelines between Buipe and Bolgatanga.

He said BOST has been able to retrieve 8.8 million litres out of nine million litres of diesel stored in the pipelines which has been idle for the past nine years.

He said the new depot has been constructed to have a 36,000 tonnes storage capacity to serve its clients.

He said the new depot would enable the country be able to monitor tankers which came from the Sahelian countries down south to load fuel and ended up selling it in Ghana on their way outside the country.

“This new depot will ensure that tankers from outside Ghana will now load from our Bolgatanga Depot to ensure that fuels not meant for the Ghanaian market do not end up here,” he said.

He said a lot of works had gone into the refurbishment of the depot to ensure that it could adequately hold fuel.

He said the reopening of the Bolgatanga Depot means BOST now operates five active depots across the country and is working assiduously to ensure that its last redundant depot called Maame Water at Akosombo also becomes operational.

He said the Tema depot would now be able to concentrate on serving its clients from Abidjan, Cotonou and the rest while the Bolgatanga depot would dedicate itself to its client from the Sahel region.

Mr Kakra Essamuah, Board Chairman, BOST, commended the staff of BOST for helping to make the Bolgatanga Depot come alive.

He said the new depot would not only create employment but would also ensure that hotels in Bolgatanga are patronised by fuel dealers from the Sahel region.

“The Buipe Depot is now paying the medical bills for the people of Buipe and we hope that soon the Bolgatanga one will also become beneficial to the people of Bolga”, he added.