The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has disclosed that the two companies involved in the acquisition of the contaminated oil from the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) are not licensed.
“Zup oil, Movenpiina are not licensed petroleum service providers,” the Chief Executive Officer of NPA Alhassan Tampuli stated on Morning Starr Wednesday, adding that their activities infringe on section 11 of the National Petroleum Act. Act 691, 2005.
He thus stated that the NPA will take legal action against the two companies while it conducts the full-scale investigation into the sale of the over 5 million litres of contaminated fuel to determine the actual quality and quantity of the products allegedly sold by BOST.
“That is a due diligence arrangement that the management of BOST should have been doing. I’m not sure what happened and then they decided to work with them. But like I said they may have their own reasons or maybe they were pressed for time or any other considerations. But they are required to have a license and that we will not compromise on that,” he told Morning Starr host Francis Abban.
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Tuesday called for the prosecution of officials of BOST over the sale of some 5 million liters of contaminated fuel. BOST had earlier sanctioned the sale of the contaminated fuel out of a number of options after considering that to be economically prudent.
But according to the Petroleum Chamber, a meeting convened by the National Petroleum Authority demanded that the transaction should be halted and a recall of some 421,000 liters of the fuel which had already been discharged But its investigations have proven that not a single liter of the contaminated fuel has been returned, with some being sold at some pumps across the country.