TOR cuts supply to defaulting OMCs

08/07/09

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru

THE Tema Oil (TOR) has cut off fuel supply to 11 Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), for their indebtedness to TOR since 2008.
The OMCs buy fuel from TOR for onward supply to petrol filling stations and the withdrawal of the supply to the 11 out of 56 OMCs operating in the country, resulted in a brief fuel shortage in some parts of the country.
The Public Relations Officer of TOR, Mrs Aba Lokko, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the cutting down of the fuel supply was part of efforts to retrieve the moneys from the defaulting OMCs.
She, however, declined to name the 11 affected OMCs, insisting that exposing their identities would amount to a breach of confidentiality.
Mrs Lokko said TOR would not restore fuel supply to the affected companies if they did not settle their debts.
She indicated that the management of TOR was negotiating with the owners of the OMCs on how to settle their indebtedness to TOR.
She said the suspension of fuel to indebted OMCs was an effective way in generating revenue for TOR.
Mrs Lokko described TOR’s financial standing as “quite challenging”, and that the management decided to generate funds internally to support the operations of the company.