The maiden commercial Tanker Vessel, GH PARKS has arrived to discharge cargo at West Africa’s deepest and new ultra-modern Liquid Bulk Terminal (LBT) at the Port of Takoradi.
This cargo operation signals the formal commencement of commercial operations at the new state-of-the-art terminal.
The Vessel, GH PARKS has a length overall (LOA) of 183.09 metres with gross tonnage (GRT) of 30031, and total cargo onboard at 42,400MT (metric tons), of which 9,500MT is to be discharged at the new state-of-the-art Liquid Bulk Terminal, in the Port of Takoradi.
The Vessel, which arrived at 0830 hours GMT on Friday, August 6, 2021, at the Port’s Anchorage, undergone screening by Port Health to check the crew/vessel and give pratique (grant permission to the vessel to have dealings with the Port, if it has a clean bill of health), as well as for Regulatory sampling and clearance by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
Mr Peter Bediako, Public Relations Manager of the Takoradi Port mentioned that as part of regulatory requirements and industry best practice, the arrival of the Vessel was preceded by the arrival of the LISSE Tanker Vessel for technical-testing operations, on Sunday, June, 27, 2021.
The technical-testing operations 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/low pressures of actual cargo discharge operation.
He announced that the new automated LBT is 300m in length and 16m deep designed to receive tanker vessels with a maximum cargo tonnage capacity of 60,000 tons and expected to improve on the turn-around-time of the vessels which hitherto was not the case since discharges were done manually.
He said the facility has five loadings/discharging arms, each for diesel, petrol, LPG, bitumen and heavy fuel and will give the Port a competitive edge over its competitors and the leverage to handle bigger vessels in bigger volumes which will also serve as a boost to revenue generation for the Port.
Mr Chris Donkoh, Branch Manager of InchCape Shipping Services lauded the Government for putting up the facility and deemed it timely, as it was time that COVID-19 restrictions which hampered the operations of Ports were being eased.
He said the Vessel was discharging 9,300 quantities of goods belonging to the ASTRA Oil Services out of the total of about 42,000 goods before leaving for the Tema Port and finally moving to Lome in Togo.
He noted that the facility will serve the interest of the bulk distributing companies (BDCs) well with its fastest turn-around-time, and hoped that it would be maintained and also receive the needed support of players in the maritime business sector.
Mr Steven Nana Andoh, Deputy Operations Manager of Marshall Oil and Gas Service said the Terminal is a subsidiary of IbisTek Ghana Ltd, a wholly Ghanaian owned company, which is also GPHA’s concession partner for the new Atlantic Terminal Services (ATS) Container and Multipurpose Terminal, currently under construction in the Port of Takoradi.
He disclosed that his outfit is the Terminal Operator and are responsible for the safety and operational duties of the facility.
