The maiden commercial tanker vessel, christened GH PARKS, has arrived on Ghana’s shores to discharge cargo at West Africa’s deepest and new ultra-modern Liquid Bulk Terminal (LBT) at the Port of Takoradi.
GH PARKS has a Length Overall (LOA) of 183.09 meters, Gross Tonnage (GRT) 30031, total Cargo Onboard, 42,400 metric tonnes (MT) of which 9,500MT is to be discharged at the LBT at the Port has ASTRA Oil Services is the Cargo Owner.
As part of regulatory requirements and industry best practice, the arrival of GH PARKS tanker vessel was preceded by the arrival of the LISSE tanker vessel for technical-testing operations. The technical-testing operation involves the discharge of 2,000 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.
Peter Amo -Bediako Manager, Human Resource, Marketing/Public Relations at the Port of Takoradi explained to the media that “the LBT, 300m in length and 16m deep, was designed to receive tanker vessels with maximum cargo tonnage capacity of 60,000 tons.”
The facility, he said, has five loading/discharging arms, each for diesel, petrol, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)and bitumen as well as heavy fuel; Takoradi Port now has the edge over its competitors to handle bigger vessels and also boost revenue base.
According to him, the LBT has the required length and depth “else we could not have received vessel GH PARKS”. The Port of Takoradi now has the leverage to bring in bigger vessels and bigger volumes and this will have an effect on our revenue. Indeed, this is good news and we are happy about this development.”
Mr. Amo-Bediako mentioned that as the part of regulatory requirements and industry best practices, the vessel upon arrival at the anchorage, undertook screening by port health to check the crew and vessel before being granted permission as well as sampling and clearance by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
He added that the Terminal Operator is Marshall Oil and Gas Services, 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.
Chris Donkoh, Branch Manager of InchCape Shipping Services, commended government for the facility.
