Why Not Merge TOR, GNPC & GOIL?

What disaster could possibly befall our nation, were the Tema Oil Refinery Limited (TOR), the Ghana National Petroleum Company Limited (GNPC) and the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL) to merge -  creating a vertically integrated oil industry behemoth in West Africa?
 
(We could then transfer all the assets and nationwide infrastructure of the Bulk Oil Storage & Tranportation Company Limited (BOST) - now more or less a financial basket case -  to the newly merged entity. That will make that new company a real force to be reckoned with in West Africa. But I digress.)

 Existing shareholders in the  partially-privatised GOIL could be given shares in the new entity created by the merger - 40 percent of which ought to be floated on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). It will raise interest-free funds to pay for the restructuring and streamlining costs of the new entity - and help us create a share-owning democracy in our country too: finally giving middle class Ghanaians an opportunity to acquire a stake in their country's oil industry.

There is considerable synergy between the three companies - and by working together they will eliminate their individual weaknesses: and profit from the relationship. TOR needs some of the oil that the GNPC lifts regularly from the Jubilee oilfield. By supplying TOR with crude oil and thus enabling it to produce at full capacity, the GNPC will have a direct impact on the real economy in a very positive manner.

And GOIL could leverage the considerable goodwill that Ghana enjoys in the sub-region  - as a result of the strong ties between many of the nations in West Africa and Ghana: established during the tenure of President Nkrumah - to build petrol filling stations selling TOR's petroleum products right across the sub-region. And exporting refined petroleum products across West Africa will create a new hard currency revenue stream  for Ghana.

Above all, aside from the many jobs that will be created for younger generation Ghanaians, the national  economy will benefit from the assured availability of fuel nationwide that will result from the merger of the three entities. A good enough reason for such a merger in my humble opinion.

However, some will also say it is an impractical and outlandish idea.  But we should think the impossible if we want to transform our nation into a prosperous society. If we are creative in our thinking, perhaps it  might lead us to pose the question: Why not merge TOR, the GNPC and GOIL - and add yet more value to our nation's oil deposits?