Ghana is on course to reduce the $11.8 billion average annual bitumen import bill with commercial production of polymer modified bitumen (PMB) in the country.
Petroleum downstream and midstream player,GOIL, set up the bitumen production plant in Tema as a strategic move to venture into new areas and to help the country reduce the foreign exchange it spends to import the product from neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire and Brazil in South America.
With Ghana’s estimated 192,000 tonnes a year demand for bitumen, GOIL believes its 240 tonnes per day bitumen capacity
or more than 87,000 tonnes per year, will help to bridge the gap significantly.
The Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GOIL, Kwame Osei Prempeh has told Graphic Online's Della Russel Ocloo that the production of PMB was a major intervention to significantly lower the cost of road construction in Ghana.
Ghana further hopes to export the product to other markets across West Africa to generate foreign exchange.