Five oil companies suspended for failing to declare returns

Five oil companies that under-declared or failed to declare returns on fuel they loaded at the Tema Tank Farm (TTF) this year have been suspended by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) until they are able to reconcile their figures and revert to the NPA for final determination of their cases.

They are Union Oil Ghana Limited, Misyl Energy Company Limited, Excel Oil Company Limited, Unique Oil Company Limited and Life Petroleum Company Limited.

Companies alleged to have indulged in underhand dealings with respect to declarations made to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) are Globex Energy Limited and Agapet Limited.
The NPA made the find after reviewing the returns of the companies for January and February this year.

In separate letters written to the companies and signed by the Chief Executive of the NPA, Mr Alhassan S. Tampuli, copies of which the Daily Graphic has, the NPA asked the affected companies to submit written explanations to the authority by close of work on April 6 or 13, 2018, but they failed to do so.

Union Oil

In January, Union Oil declared on the GRA’s volume reconciliation form that it was supplied 162,000 litres of diesel by Misyl Energy from the TTF, when, in actual fact, 1,458,000 litres were loaded.

“The NPA has observed that 1,296,000 litres of the product loaded were, therefore, not declared on the GRA reconciliation form submitted to the authority,” the letter from the NPA to Union Oil and copied to the Commissioner-General of the GRA and the Deputy Energy Minister in charge of Petroleum, said.

After the NPA’s February review, it said: “Union Oil Ghana Limited loaded at the Tema Tank Farm 243,000 litres of gasoline and 913,500 litres of diesel supplied by Misyl Energy Company Limited but declared only 27,000 litres of gasoline and 121,500 litres of diesel on the GRA volume reconciliation form submitted to the NPA.”

Another letter in response to an earlier one submitted by Union Oil to the NPA said the authority had decided to suspend the oil company from operating but asked it to do a reconciliation exercise and revert to the NPA.

It disclosed further that “our review of the January and February 2018 returns in respect of loadings from the TTF revealed that Union Oil Ghana Limited did not pay the statutory margins on 4,266,000 litres of petroleum products”.

It said the margins included 918,000 litres of gasoline and 324,000 litres of diesel supplied by Globex Energy Limited in January and 378,000 litres of diesel supplied by Juwel Energy Limited in February 2018.

Misyl Energy

After a review of Misyl Energy’s operations in January, the NPA found that while the company declared it had only supplied 162,000 litres and 810,000 litres of diesel to Union Oil and Excel Oil, respectively, further checks revealed that 1,458,000 litres and 2,160,000 litres were the actual volumes supplied to the two companies, respectively.

“The NPA has observed that 1,296,000 litres of diesel in respect to supplies to Union Oil and 1,350 litres of diesel in respect to supplies to Excel Oil were not declared on the GRA volume reconciliation form,” it said in a communication to Misyl Energy, stating that the company had been suspended till it was able to reconcile its figures.

Excel Oil

Excel Oil has also been suspended by the NPA for its failure to pay the statutory margins on 3,132,000 litres of petroleum products.

According to the NPA’s findings in January, Excel Oil loaded 2,160,000 litres of diesel supplied by Misyl Energy at the TTF and not the 810,000 the company declared, culminating in 1,350,000 litres of diesel not being declared on the GRA’s reconciliation form submitted to the NPA.

The NPA said for the month of February, it “observed that Excel Oil loaded at the TTF 1,714,500 litres of gasoline and 1,026,000 litres of diesel supplied by Misyl Energy but declared 580,500 litres of gasoline and 432,500 litres of diesel on the GRA volume reconciliation form submitted to the authority”.

Excel Oil was, therefore, required to submit an explanation to the NPA by close of day last Friday, April 13, 2018.

Globex Energy Limited

Globex Energy is also deemed to have supplied 661,500 litres of diesel to Union Oil, instead of “at least 918,000 litres” in January 2018.

The communication from the NPA, dated April 5, 2018, said Globex’s failure to submit a written explanation by Wednesday, April 11, would result in the company being suspended.

Unique Oil

The NPA has suspended Unique Oil over its January 2018 returns for failing to pay the statutory margins on 877,500 litres of petroleum products.

The authority said 324,000 litres of gasoline loaded at the TTF and 351,000 litres of gasoline supplied by Juwel Energy were not declared on the GRA’s volume reconciliation form submitted.

Life Petroleum, Agapet

Life Petroleum, suspended for allegedly not submitting its volume reconciliation forms, said it had already done so and appealed to the NPA to lift its embargo “to enable us to lift products to serve our customers who are in remote areas”.

After a review of petroleum products loaded by Agapet Limited, the NPA communicated to the company thus: “During the review, the authority observed that Agapet Limited loaded 1,071,000 litres of gasoline and 2,268,000 litres of diesel supplied by Globex Energy at the Tema Tank Farm but failed to indicate these liftings on the GRA volume reconciliation form submitted to the NPA.”