Eastern region will have regular supply of domestic gas - Elung Paul Che

Following his installation as the new General Manager of the Hydrocarbons Prices Stabilization Fund, CSPH, in May 2013, Mr Elung Paul Che on July 10, 2013, paid a visit to the site of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Conditioning Project, at Ndoumbi 1 in Bertoua. At the end of the visit, the CSPH General Manager spoke to The Median’s editor, Ojong Steven Ayukogem. Here are some excerpts of the conversation.

Q: What are your impressions after this visit to Bertoua Gas Conditioning Project?

A: I think my impressions are very good. This project happens to be one of the biggest and most important investment projects that the CSPH has carried out at the moment.

So as the new manager I have to go to the field and inspect the project, to evaluate the level of progress of works. You can bear with me that, the progress of the project is good. The execution is already above 70%, which means that the terms of the contract which prescribes 20 months for the execution would be respected. I think I am satisfied.

Q: What is the objective of this project?

A: One of the missions of the CSPH is to guarantee the regular and secure supply of petroleum products throughout the national territory and you cannot guarantee regular supply if you don’t have the requisite logistics which can enable you to make sure that petroleum products are available on the local markets at all times and in good quantity.

It is for this reason that the CSPH also invests in the construction of filling stations. The present project is a gas conditioning plant for domestic gas. It will have a capacity to stock about 100 tonnes of butane (domestic gas) on the spot which will in turn be conditioned and bottled for supply throughout the East region. I think the project falls within the missions of CSPH.

Q: Will consumers buy the gas at the same price like in towns like Douala, Limbe, and Yaounde?

A: Exactly! You have just hit the main point. The project makes it possible for gas to be conditioned and bottled on the spot. So the cost of transporting the product here would not cause any financial burden on our consumers.

The stakeholder administrations – CSPH, SCDP will make sure that together with the retailers the price structure will absorb all the cost incurred in transporting the product from the main depot in Douala to the conditioning plant in Bertoua.

Because the product would be conditioned and bottled on the spot the retail price would also be at the same level with that in Douala and other towns.

Q: You emphasized on security around the project site. How will this be assured?

A: I expressed reservations about the security around the project site because the sad events of the Nsam fire disaster that occurred a few years ago in Yaounde are still very fresh in our memories.

So I had to enquire from the control mission and the contractor if there is enough security around the centre, so that should a similar incident like Nsam happens, it can be quickly curtailed.

I must say that I am very happy with what was presented to me concerning not only the project but also the security system that goes with it. That notwithstanding, I have instructed that the security perimeter around the site be extended.

We need a security perimeter that extends beyond 50 meters from the installations so as to be sure that in the event of any unforeseen incidents in the future the populations around the vicinity of the project should not be affected like was the case in Nsam.

Q: After the East region are there other such projects in the pipeline for other parts of the country?

A: This is the second gas conditioning plant we are building. The first was in Maroua. This second project will go fully operational in the next couple of months.

Whether we will extend such projects to other regions would depend on the financial resources we have. If the resources are there then we could start thinking of other regions.

There is for instance, the Bakassi area in Ndian division of the South West region which is almost land-locked and has no petrol or gas stations and with very bad roads.

For sure we will have projects in other regions of the country with time but like I said earlier, this would depend on the availability of the requisite financial resources.