A new state-of-the-art and West Africa’s deepest Liquid Bulk Terminal (LBT) at the Port of Takoradi, has started commercial operations.
The ultra-modern liquid bulk terminal which is part of the port’s expansion project started commercial operations with the arrival of the maiden commercial tanker vessel christened ‘GH PARKS’ on Friday, August 6, 2021, to discharge cargo.
The Vessel has a length overall (LOA) of 183.09 metres with a gross tonnage (GRT) of 30031.
The total Cargo Onboard was 42,400 metric tons (MT) of which 9,500MT was to be discharged at the new state-of-the-art Liquid Bulk Terminal, in the Port of Takoradi. The cargo owner was ASTRA Oil Services.
As part of regulatory requirements and industry best practices, the arrival of the GH PARKS tanker vessel was preceded by the arrival of the LISSE tanker vessel for technical testing operations, on Sunday, June 27, 2021.
The technical testing operation involved the discharge of 2000 metric tons of liquid bulk cargo, for the all-important technical operation of testing the Terminal’s pipelines’ integrity under conditions of high and low pressures of actual cargo discharge operation.
GH PARKS initially arrived at the Port’s anchorage, for Port Health to screen the crew and give pratique, or grant permission to the vessel to have dealings with the Port and check if it had clean bill of health.
It was also at the anchorage for Regulatory sampling and clearance by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
Mr Peter Bediako, Marketing and Public Relations Manager of the Takoradi Port disclosed this to journalists in an interview after inspecting the terminal and the vessel on Sunday.
He announced that the new automated LBT is 300metres (m) in length and 16m deep designed to receive tanker vessels with a maximum cargo tonnage capacity of about 60,000 tons.
He said the new LBT is expected to improve on the turn-around time of the vessels and will give the Port a competitive edge over its competitors.
“The new LBT will as well handle bigger vessels in bigger volumes which will also serve as a boost to revenue generation for the Port”, he added.
Mr Steven Nana Andoh, Deputy Operations Manager of Marshall Oil and Gas Service said the Terminal is a subsidiary of IbisTek Ghana Limited, a wholly Ghanaian owned company.
Mr Chris Donkoh, Branch Manager of InchCape Shipping Services lauded the Government for putting up the facility. He noted that the facility will serve the interest of the bulk distributing companies (BDCs) well with its fastest turn-around time.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi