By Aminata Ceesay
The Gambia National Petroleum Corporation appears before the Public
Accounts and Public Enterprise Committee (PAC/PEC) of the National
Assembly to present their activity report and financial statement.Speaking during the presentation, Momodou O.S Badjie, Managing
Director, GNPC, said the corporation was founded in 2003 under the
directive to establish a national oil company of the republic of The
Gambia and in 2014, the GNPC Act was passed to legally establish it as
a corporation. “In 2010 GNPC started its downstream petroleum sector
by building the national network of service stations, with the
Kanifing service stations being the first among the nine we have
today. Currently GNPC operates nine service stations from Banjul to
Basse. As the National oil corporation, we have to be present not only
in the urban area but across the country,” said Mr. Badjie.
The GNPC managing director said from 2013 to date they did not expand
their network because of the petroleum house project. He said now that
this is completed they will continue the expansion of their network to
reach the people with quality products.
“In 2014, GNPC registered a profit before taxation of D169 million,
showing a 53 per cent compared to the same profit of D110 million in
2013. This is mainly due to the importation of fuel in the period. In
2008, GNPC employed the 25 graduates from the four-year petroleum
elite program held in Taiwan and some of this staff are now managing
our downstream activities and the others are pursuing or got their
masters degrees in various fields of the upstream activities. Locally
we continue to train our staff in various professional disciplines and
also in the University of the Gambia,” he said.
Mr Badjie said they are now importing their own AGO and PMS products
and also HFO for NAWEC after the Government liberalized the
importation sometimes in 2014.
He said since the liberalization of the importation, GNPC has made a
significant impact in the Oil and Gas industry in terms of the sale of
high quality petroleum products and increasing its market share
despite the competition.
According to him, they are the only OMC importing the best and highest
quality fuel with a maximum sulphur content of 50ppm.
Mr. Badjie said the petroleum house is at an advance stage and is
expected to be inaugurated in July 2016 as part of activities in
commemoration of the July 22nd anniversary.
