Curtains have been drawn on the 3rd edition of the Government Action Forum better known by its French acronym as SAGO with the lone National Oil Refinery Company, SONARA stealing the show last August 19 to 22 at the esplanade of the Yaoundé Multipurpose Sports Complex. SONARA emerged as one of the most visited stand as people came visiting in their numbers to know how the company functions and how it treats oil.

Apart from being one of the main sponsors of SAGO 2014, the National Oil Refinery who General Manager is Ibrahim Talba Malla opted to open up itself to the public in order to demystify alleged silence in the oil sector especially at the time Cameroonians are still consuming the recent fuel prize hike.

At hand to receive the several visitors was the head of SONARA staff delegation to SAGO 2014, the Director of Communication, Ngome Blacius who re-echoed the strategy being put in place by the General Manager to ensure that SONARA meets up with the challenge of contributing enormously to Cameroon’s becoming of an emerging country by 2035.

As if to reiterate the importance of SONARA to national life, it was the stand of the national oil refinery that first played host to the personal representative of the Prime Minister at the occasion, Communication Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary during the visit of stands shortly after the cutting of the symbolic ribbon of the opening ceremony. SONARA staff throughout their stay in Yaoundé during SAGO 2014 was restless as they attended all day long the ever curious public that came knocking at their door.

Supervisor of Unit at SONARA, Melong Jean Claude explaining fuel sample to visitors.

Explaining to The SUN how they are coping with the increasing influx of visitors in their stand, SONARA Communication Official, Parfait Messina Ngosso said “We are organized to make sure that all visitors are well received and given the information they need. We know that many people have questions to raise on oil issues and that is why we came to explain to Cameroonians the daily actions of SONARA. We seized this opportunity offered to us by SAGO 2014 to showcase what SONARA is capable of and what we have been doing especially when it comes to the project for the extension and modernization of SONARA.

The heavy influx of visitors can be explained by the fact that many people had taken SONARA to be a mystical company that does not communicate but today, the management of SONARA deemed it necessary for us to come and our contribution to the development of the national economy. Our coming here was very timely because some people erroneously said SONARA was increasing fuel prices in the country.

We explained to them that increasing fuel price is not a mission of SONARA but rather to refine crude oil and put it at the level of national consumption. The visitors are coming in with a lot of questions and luckily, they return from our stand satisfied and we are so happy about that.”

Holding under the theme “Government action and performance challenges for an emerging Cameroon by 2035,” SAGO 2014 organized by the Communication Firm dubbed Mon Communicateur played host to some 15 conference granted by government structures in order to showcase their know how to the ever curious public. Created in 1973 and inaugurated in 1981, SONARA is a topping reforming refinery. SONARA places at the disposal of the market the following petroleum products: butane, gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, distillate, fuel oil.

The Limbe refinery has a theoretical capacity of 2,100,000 tons/year. It was conceived at first to treat light crude (Arabian light). However Cameroon currently produces heavy crudes and one notes an inadequacy between the existing toolsin the refinery and the crudes available.