A deserted Gas filling station in Sunyani
GAS FILLING stations in the Sunyani municipality of the Brong-Ahafo Region are on strike in protest against the National Petroleum Authority’s (NPA’s) decision to close down all dispensing outlets in the country.
Refilling station managers told DAILY GUIDE that the Gas Tanker Drivers’ Association in the country had already commenced a nationwide strike since last Thursday and so were no longer bringing gas to the outlets. Due to this, the dispensing outlets are running out of stock and have decided to hoard the little stock that they have, thereby turning domestic consumers and taxi drivers away.
Deputy chairman of the Dispensing Outlets Association in the region, Kyere Diabour, told DAILY GUIDE that the decision by the NPA to allow only bottling plants to fill gas cylinders at Atuabo so that gas tanker drivers would get their supplies from the trucks and use the trailer to convey the cylinders to customers for exchange with empty bottles would only throw them out of business.
He said the objective behind the project, which is to prevent fires at the filling stations, is not attainable. “It would only throw us out of business,” he lamented. “We the operators have invested a lot of money in establishing the filling stations so we are protesting against the policy by NPA,” Mr Diabour indicated.
He said the policy if implemented, would allow retail outlets in the country only to serve commercial vehicles but not household cylinder users. “The household users will only pay for gas and not cylinders,” he noted, saying the current old cylinders would be faced out because according to the NPA, they are weak.
National chairman of the Gas Taker Drivers’ Association, Mohamed Shafiu, confirmed to DAILY GUIDE on phone that they were on strike but added that negotiations were ongoing between the NPA and the associations.
FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani