The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has said it would soon petition the Special Prosecutor to investigative issues surrounding the sale of some 1.8 million barrels of crude oil by Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) to an oil marketing company called BB Energy, a company COPEC alleges is unlicensed.
At a press conference on Monday, March 19, Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah said “…we are immediately after this press conference heading for the office of the Special Prosecutor for prompt and immediate investigations to unravel the real relationship that exist between the individuals engaged in this transaction and what the motivation for such a poorly negotiated transaction could be.”
COPEC had alleged the deal is “shady” and was brokered at a discounted price of $2 per barrel which they argue has caused the state to lose $5.1 M.
BOST had denied any wrongdoing in the said deal, arguing that discount sale is an acceptable practice on the commodity market and that BB Energy did not need license to do the transaction. BOST further argued it was the most prudent business decision they took considering the options that were available.
But Duncan Amoah has hit back, saying, “BOST after the publication of our findings has sought to deceive the public they only transacted 942,000 barrels leaving the remaining they traded off with another trader known as AOT completely unmentioned in their reports and defense following from desperate onslaught to call in the credibility of the report and COPEC by extension, the trading off dynamics of the rest of the 1.8million barrels of crude domiciled in the tanks of Tema Oil Refinery is also a matter of keen interests to us and we encourage BOST to publish that also”.
The response of BOST to the allegations however did not seem to sit down well with COPEC hence their threat to invoke “the investigative jurisdictions of the special prosecutor to delve into the real issues”. COPEC is of the view that the conduct of BOST in the deal and their subsequent responses to the issues amounts to “attempts to defend reckless lawlessness”.
In an 8-pointer counter-argument to BOST’s denials, COPEC argues the deal which they now refer to as “Donkomi sale” was fraught with “illegality, lawlessness” and that no financial prudence was done.
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