LOUIS K. YAMOAH
St Louis Petroleum LLC, Ghana’s first petroleum products storage company, has entered into an agreement with Mimshach Energy Limited, a leading indigenously owned bulk oil distribution company, to construct and utilize a large capacity fuel tank farm to be located at Ahuntumano, Discove in the Western Region.
The fuel tank farm will have the capacity to store up to 62,000 cubic metres (62,000,000 litres) of petroleum products at a time, making it one of the biggest fuel tank farms in Ghana.
The agreement demonstrates the potential of St Louis Petroleum LLC to dramatically enhance the petroleum product supply chain capacities of operators in Ghana’s downstream oil and gas industry by providing them with crucial storage facilities that are beyond their own capacity.
The partnership between the two companies will enable Mimshach store the petroleum products it imports for sale to Oil Marketing Companies (OMC), who retail the products to the general public and an array of other bulk purchase customer companies.
Importantly, the construction of a fuel tank farm under the agreement will complete Mimshach’s own supply chain since it already owns an oil marketing company, Sephem Oil Company.
Thus ownership of a fuel tank farm will position Mimshach and its subsidiary OMC as a complete, self contained supply chain from bulk importation right through to retail sales to the final consumer.
St Louis Petroleum LLC, which is part of the wider St Louis Group, was established to, among others, create storage capacity for the industry through its own state-of-the-art fuel tank farms and partnerships with BDCs.
Isaac Kofi Lutterodt, Group Chairman of the Mimshach Energy Group, said: “Mimshach Energy is certain this strategic partnership will be mutually beneficial to our respective companies.”
Mimshach Energy was licensed by the NPA as a BDC in 2O15.
It imports and supplies diesel, gasoline, LPG, kerosene and aviation fuel in bulk.
It supplies oil exploration and production companies, construction and logistics companies and OMCs, including its own subsidiary, Sephem Oil Company.
Sephem Oil currently has over 100 retail petrol stations spread across the Greater Accra, Western, Central, Ashanti, Eastern and Brong Ahafo Regions, with several more now under construction.
It is rated among the top five OMCs in Ghana with regards to retail sale of diesel with a market share of about 8 percent.