Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company rejects bad petroleum importation

In order to maintain the high standard of petroleum importation, recently, the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC) blocked cargoes of bad petroleum products shipped to Liberia by business man and politician Musa Hassan Bility and two other importers.

Srimex which is one of the importers was granted a license in 2005 to import petroleum products into Liberia and this license extends to the distribution, commercial retail, bunkering as well as oil exploration. The petroleum import business soon eclipsed other activities and in 2011 Srimex Oil and Gas was formed to focus solely on the import and distribution of this product.

Reports confirmed that LPRC in the possession of FrontPage Africa revealed that the petroleum products brought in by vessels M/T’s Camden, Eleana and Brent failed the quality test and were not permitted on the Liberian market. It says the country needs to standardize its petroleum market:

“Three motor tankers that sailed to Liberia over the past seventeen days with cargoes of petroleum products intended for discharge into storage facilities within Liberia and for sale on the Liberian petroleum market regulator, the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC) to deny these vessels the chance to discharge as they so desired and to turn these vessels away from the shores of Liberia.”

It was further revealed that the bad petroleum brought by Bility and his colleagues if wasn’t detected by the LPRC could damage a lot of vehicles in a country that is flooded with used cars:

“Bulk of our cars we have here are used cars; then you go and allow bad product to come into the country? It will damage cars,” the head of communications at LPRC Williams Morris said.

In addition, Morris said after several tests were conducted, the lab technician advised the management not to allow the petroleum on the shore of Liberia, adding that it was a decision the Managing Director upheld which is the best for Liberians’ safety:

“With the advice of the lab technicians, the Managing Director did not allow the product to come in the country.”

After some disagreement between the two parties, the LPRC head of communications said the importers challenged the management decision and brought in external experts who consequently confirmed the results as valid:

“There was a chemist that came from La Cote d’Ivoire that acknowledged that the petroleum is not good for the market, so we sent it back. The penalty for me is the fact that they will bring vessels without being allowed and they will have to take it back. I mean that’s a penalty. You can’t send the man’s vessel back and punish him again if it was something smuggled into the country you can penalize such people. We sent the product back for them to bring good product, the penalty is the losses they went through.”

In response to this, Bility in short interview via mobile admitted to bringing in the petroleum which did not meet the standard for entry on the Liberian market:

“I wasn’t alone in this, we brought our petroleum and government said it wasn’t good so we sent it back, go to BIVAC and ask for their report, but LPRC said the petroleum wasn’t good, I don’t think this is political because it wasn’t my one.”

Many Liberians believe that it was a great idea to have sent back bad petroleum products while some believe it could have gone through a larger test before concluding that it is bad. However, Liberian government has received huge commendation for standardizing the oil sector to favour its citizens.