The Shareholders of the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL) has affirmed Peter Kwamena Bartels, a former Minister of the Interior as the Chairman of GOIL Board of Directors at the 48th Annual General Meeting.
He takes over from Professor William A. Asomaning.
The Shareholders also confirmed Mr Patrick Akpe Kwame Akorli, GOIL Group Chief Executive Officer and Mr Thomas Kofi Manu, Mr Kwame Osei-Prempeh, Mr Beaucerc Ato Williams, Mrs Beatrix Agyeman Prempeh, Mr Robert Owusu Amankwah, and Mrs Rhoderline Baafour-Gyimah all government appointees, were elected to replace retiring Board Members.
Mr Stephen Abu Tengan a nominee of Social Security and National Insurance Trust was also elected.
The out-going Board of Directors recommended the payment of a dividend of GH¢0.025 per share amounting to GH¢9,796,578.00 for the year ended 31 December 2016.
In accordance with Section 134 (6a) and Section 134 (11a) of the Companies Act 1963, Act 179, the Board affirmed PKF (ICGA/F/2013/039) Chartered Accountants to continue in office as Auditors of GOIL.
The out-going Board in accordance with conventions deferred to fix the remuneration of the incoming Board of Directors.
Recounting the achievement of the out-going Board of Directors for the past eight years, Prof. Asomaning said the Board was able to take some bold decisions, which were efficiently implemented by the Management Team.
Some of the initiatives, he mentioned included the introduction of Diesel XP and Super XP Fuels onto the market in 2009; and setting up of GOIL Aviation.
Prof. Asomaning said GOIL took advantage of the oil discovery and started delivering Marine Gas Oil (MGO) to supply vessels working for the exploration and production companies and Jet A-1 fuel to helicopters moving to and from the oil rigs.
He said in 2011, GOIL initiated a rebranding exercise by subsequently launching and out-dooring the first rebranded service station at South-La in May 2012.
The rebranding campaign was aimed at changing the logo, station-outlook, and most importantly, adopting a new corporate culture dubbed, ‘Good Energy comes with a Smile.’
Prof. Asomaning recounted that in 2013, the nation was hit by fuel shortages and the Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs) resorted to selling on a cash basis, with no guarantee of uninterrupted fuel supplies.
“GOIL, in order to secure a constant supply of petroleum products to our customers, decided to set up a BDC, Goenergy Company Limited (Goenergy) in 2014, to fulfil its petroleum supply requirements.
“The alliance between Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST)/Goenergy and GOIL had worked well in stabilising market prices for the benefit of our cherished customers.
“We achieved this success without any subsidies from Government contrary to assertions by a section of the industry. The fact is that government owes GOIL due to supplies to the security services. I am sure if the subsidy story were true, government would rather use the funds to pay up its debts than subsidise a commercial enterprise like GOIL”.
Prof Asomaning said again in 2015, GOIL also installed a 34m3 containerized Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) tank at the Kumasi
Airport to supply fuel to airlines engaged in domestic flights.
As part of our strategy to supply MGO for upstream activities, the Company successfully installed and commissioned a three-storage tank farm of total capacity 3,800m3 at Sekondi Naval Base.
He said in addition, GOIL on the April 5 this year commissioned a 13,500m3 capacity modern, fully automated three-tank storage facility at Takoradi Harbour to store and supply MGO to meet the ever increasing demand by supply vessels.
The Company also fully rehabilitated a 2,400m3 joint venture MGO storage facility at Tema (Ghana Bunkering Service (GBS)).
The outgoing Board Chairman said, “when this Board took over in March 2009, our market share was 13.6 percent as the third largest Oil Marketing Company (OMC), and by December 2016, our market share had risen to 18.2 per cent making GOIL the market leader in Ghana today.
“This is no mean achievement considering that the number of OMCs have increased from about ten to over 100.