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Mr Boakye Agyarko, the Energy Minister, has said over USD$50 billion investment funds would be needed to build a relevant petroleum infrastructure such as an oil refinery, tank farms, pipelines, marine facilities and other allied facilities to make Ghana a petroleum hub.

     He said the estimated amount was reached after the assessment made by a petroleum task force inaugurated by the government last year to develop a petroleum infrastructure master plan and road map towards the realisation of the vision.

     He said the funds was supposed to come from public and private investments of which the government was to raise 10 per cent to support the construction of road networks, electricity and water facilities,

     Mr Agyarko made this known at the second edition of the Ghana International Petroleum Conference in Accra held on the theme: ‘‘Realising the vision of a petroleum hub’’.

     The four-day event was under the auspices of the Energy Ministry and Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, in collaboration with the National Petroleum Authority and the Association of Oil Marketing Companies.

     It brought together key stakeholders in the petroleum downstream sector, including policy-makers, regulators and oil service providers, to deliberate on policies and trends in the sector, as well as discuss pertinent issues affecting the industry in the bid to guide decision-making.

      Mr Agyarko said the Ministry had prepared a draft Fuel Quality Policy, which provides guidance on acceptable sulphur specifications and would go through stakeholders’ consultations for their inputs before going to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.

     Meanwhile, he said, the National Petroleum Authority had implemented guidelines on Fuel Quality Specifications, which put the sulphur levels of petroleum products at 50ppm (part per million).

     He said industry players were complying with the guidelines to ensure safer and healthy environment for the people.

     In the light of those development, Mr Agyarko urged the African Refinery Association and the ECOWAS Secretariat to urgently move towards achieving the needed harmonisation of fuel quality specifications in the sub-region and Africa as a whole.