BIDECs Reportedly Lobby NPA for Regional Fuel Depots as Competition for Storage Market Intensifies

BIDECs Reportedly Lobby NPA for Regional Fuel Depots as Competition for Storage Market Intensifies

By Radiant Media and Intelligence Hub

 A group of Bulk Import, Distribution and Export Companies (BIDECs) is reportedly lobbying the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) for approvals to develop and operate privately owned petroleum storage and loading depots in Ghana’s regional capitals.

The move if successful could become a significant new phase in the restructuring of the country’s downstream petroleum logistics market.

Industry sources familiar with the discussions say the proposal is currently at the policy-discussion stage and is being presented by proponents as a means of improving supply-chain efficiency, reducing transportation distances and strengthening fuel availability outside the Greater Accra area.

The proposal, if approved, could nevertheless have far-reaching implications for the commercial position of state-owned BOSTenergies and the way Ghana manages strategic petroleum reserves and distributes products across the country.

A market looking beyond Tema

The Greater Accra petroleum storage market has become increasingly competitive, with several private terminal operators competing for storage, handling and loading business.

Against this backdrop, industry sources say some BIDECs are looking to establish storage infrastructure closer to major consumption centres in other parts of the country.

The argument is straightforward: regional storage facilities could reduce the distance petroleum products travel by Bulk Road Vehicles (BRVs), potentially lowering transportation costs and improving the speed with which products reach markets.

The proponents also frame the initiative as consistent with deregulation and increased private-sector participation in the downstream petroleum industry.

Ghana’s petroleum downstream sector is already heavily dependent on BIDECs for imports. The Government’s 2026–2029 Energy and Green Transition Sector Medium-Term Development Plan identifies 52 BIDECs in the sector, alongside refineries and major petroleum discharge facilities.

But the storage question is more complicated than simply adding more tanks.

The BOSTenergies question

BOSTenergies occupies a unique position in Ghana’s petroleum supply chain.

The state-owned company describes itself as the country’s energy backbone, with a network of strategic storage and distribution facilities designed to move petroleum products from coastal receipt points to inland demand centres.

BOSTenergies current infrastructure includes depots at Accra Plains, Kumasi, Buipe, Bolgatanga, Akosombo and Mami Water, as well as the Savelugu booster station.

The company's stated role also includes safeguarding strategic fuel reserves. BOSTenergies says its objective is to maintain reserves capable of guaranteeing up to 12 weeks of uninterrupted national fuel supply.

That makes the prospect of multiple privately controlled regional storage networks a policy issue extending beyond ordinary commercial competition.

The central question is whether privately developed depots would complement BOSTenergies' national infrastructure or gradually divert commercial throughput away from the state-owned network.

What the BIDECs are arguing

Sources familiar with the position being advanced by proponents identify three principal arguments.

First is efficiency. Regional storage, they contend, would bring products closer to consumption centres, reduce trucking distances and improve supply resilience during disruptions.

Second is cost. Some industry players argue that storage and terminal charges contribute to the suppliers' premium incorporated into petroleum pricing.

The Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors has previously noted that suppliers' premiums include costs such as discharge, storage and rack loading, financing and demurrage.

The Chamber has also reported that Ghana has historically had substantial installed petroleum storage capacity relative to utilisation, suggesting that the economics of additional tankage deserve careful examination rather than being assumed to be automatically beneficial.

Third is competition. Proponents maintain that allowing more private infrastructure would introduce greater competition into storage and terminal services and reduce dependence on a single infrastructure operator.

But is Ghana short of storage or short of efficiently utilised storage?

This is one of the most important questions confronting policymakers.

Industry data cited by the Chamber for Bulk Oil Distributors indicates that Ghana's installed storage capacity has been underutilised, with tank-turn ratios for petrol, diesel and LPG reported at approximately 26%, 28% and 30%, respectively, at the end of 2023.

That raises a fundamental policy dilemma.

If the country already possesses significant unused capacity, policymakers will need to establish whether the problem is genuinely inadequate regional storage or whether existing infrastructure is not being utilised efficiently.

Building additional terminals could improve geographical distribution, but it could also create another layer of infrastructure competing for the same volumes.

For BOSTenergies, sustained diversion of commercial throughput could have consequences for revenue generation, maintenance of its infrastructure and its ability to finance the strategic functions expected of it.

The strategic-reserve dilemma

The most sensitive aspect of the proposal concerns energy security.

BOSTenergies has historically been assigned an important role in maintaining strategic petroleum stocks.

Earlier government policy documents and BOST's own corporate mandate have emphasised the company's responsibility for strategic reserves and a nationwide network of storage and transportation infrastructure.

Its infrastructure is also designed to facilitate movement of products between different parts of the country through pipelines, barges and road transportation.

At Buipe, for example, BOST's infrastructure was designed to receive products through river-barge systems and transfer them through pipelines, while also providing facilities for BRV receipts and loading.

This infrastructure reflects a national logistics architecture rather than merely a collection of commercial storage terminals.

Consequently, the emergence of numerous private regional depots would require the NPA and government to establish clear rules governing the relationship between commercial storage and strategic reserves.

Who controls the emergency stock?

Who decides where it is held?

Who has access to it during a national supply disruption?

And, critically, who bears the cost of maintaining capacity that may only be required during an emergency?

BRVs and the cost of decentralisation

Another issue is transportation.

Regional depots could shorten some trucking routes, particularly where products currently have to be moved considerable distances from coastal or central storage locations.

However, if the new infrastructure is predominantly supplied and evacuated by road, the expansion could also entrench BRVs as the principal mode of petroleum transportation.

That would need to be assessed against Ghana's existing pipeline and inland waterway infrastructure.

BOSTenergies has previously developed logistics systems intended to move petroleum products through pipelines and inland waterways.

Its Debre facility, for instance, was developed to support petroleum transfers to Buipe during periods when low water levels on the Volta Lake affect barge operations.

The policy challenge, therefore, is not simply whether Ghana needs more storage, but what combination of storage, pipelines, barges and road transportation delivers the lowest long-term national logistics cost.

The pricing question

Supporters of greater private participation argue that competition should ultimately put downward pressure on costs.

But competition does not automatically guarantee lower prices.

The NPA has previously acknowledged that unhealthy price competition can create challenges for petroleum service providers and has introduced regulatory measures intended to preserve competition while addressing market distortions.

With regional storage concentrated among a limited number of operators, the regulator would also need to guard against the emergence of localised market power.

A situation in which only a handful of terminals control access to storage or loading infrastructure in a particular region could create a different kind of vulnerability.

The question for the regulator would therefore be whether additional infrastructure creates genuine competition or simply relocates market concentration from Tema to the regions.

A regulatory test for the NPA

The NPA now faces a delicate balancing exercise.

The Authority is mandated to regulate Ghana's downstream petroleum industry, while private participation remains an important feature of the deregulated market.

At the same time, petroleum storage is not an ordinary commercial activity. It intersects directly with national energy security, emergency preparedness, infrastructure planning and consumer prices.

The Government's current sector development plan itself identifies infrastructure and logistics constraints as challenges to efficiency, cost-effectiveness and strategic competitiveness in the downstream sector.

Any approval for new regional depots would therefore need to be evaluated against a national infrastructure plan rather than solely on the commercial merits of individual applications.

Could the proposal weaken BOSTenergies?

That is the bigger strategic question.

BOSTenergies has recently sought to reinforce its position as a national energy logistics company.

In May 2026, its Managing Director, Afetsi Awoonor, said the company had the infrastructure, systems and operational capacity to support Ghana's 24-hour economy, describing its depots and logistics corridors as a foundation for round-the-clock fuel distribution.

The company has also reported a profit after tax of GH¢398 million for 2024 and identified infrastructure expansion and fuel-security functions among its strategic priorities.

Against this background, a substantial shift of storage and loading volumes to private regional terminals could have commercial implications for a company that the state expects to remain financially sustainable while performing strategic functions.

The concern among some policymakers, according to industry sources, is therefore that a proliferation of private depots could gradually make parts of BOSTenergies' infrastructure commercially redundant.

That claim, however, remains a matter for evidence and policy analysis.

The existence of private regional depots does not necessarily mean BOSTenergies would become redundant; the outcome would depend heavily on licensing conditions, strategic-reserve requirements, pricing, throughput arrangements and the allocation of national supply volumes.

A broader debate over Ghana's petroleum architecture

The emerging debate ultimately goes beyond the construction of tanks.

It is about the architecture of Ghana's petroleum supply system and the appropriate division of responsibility between the state and private sector.

A well-designed model could see private depots complementing BOSTenergies by providing additional regional capacity while the state retains control over strategic reserves and critical national infrastructure.

A poorly designed model, however, could produce duplicated infrastructure, underutilised public assets, higher overall logistics costs and fragmented emergency-response arrangements.

There are also unverified claims circulating within sections of the industry about previous lobbying and commercial strategies involving private petroleum-sector interests and their alleged contribution to the difficulties experienced by Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).

Those allegations have not been independently established and should not be treated as fact without documentary evidence or responses from the parties concerned.

What happens next?

Radiant Media and Intelligence Hub understands that discussions around the proposed regional-depot model remain at the policy level and that no final regulatory approval has been established from the information available for this report.

The next stage will be closely watched by BIDECs, terminal operators, BOSTenergies, transporters, oil marketing companies, consumer groups and investors.

For the NPA, the decision will involve more than determining whether an applicant meets technical and licensing requirements.

It will require answering a fundamental national-policy question:

Should Ghana build a more decentralised petroleum storage market in which private operators increasingly control regional capacity, or should existing national infrastructure be strengthened and better utilised before new strategic storage assets are approved?

The answer could influence BOSTenergies' commercial future, the cost structure of petroleum distribution, the evolution of public-private partnerships and, ultimately, how Ghana secures fuel supplies during its next major energy disruption.

The issue is therefore not simply who owns the tanks. It is who controls the infrastructure through which Ghana's fuel security is delivered.