Duncan Amoah, COPEC Executive Secretary
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC) believes the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) must relieve the people from the accompanying shocks as global oil prices are expected to approach record levels this year.
In an interview the media, the Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah, indicated that these state institutions must reduce the impact of the anticipated increase in petrol costs at the pump.
Due to a number of issues, TOR has been unable to fully operationalise for some time, while BOST has failed to meet its responsibility of maintaining Strategic Reserve Stocks for Ghana.
“The strategy for Ghana as a country will be to ensure BOST is very active and ensure again that the refinery is also active. Once you put these two together, you are in a very good space to get certain things running for Ghanaians. BOST has also brought down pipelines that should aid in the transportation of oil from one point to the other and reduce the pressure on our roads. We are encouraging, BOST to ensure that these pipelines are as soon as possible, fixed and made to work,” he said.
Mr Amoah continued, “Once that works, the cost of fuel transportation, which we pay for in the price build-up the taxes would at least go down and fuel prices can come down a bit. This should be our key strategy, at least for 2022 bearing in mind that international market prices are set to simply go up and, so BOST again would also have to take advantage of their large capacity to hold fuel reserve.”
TOR has been partially functioning for some time due to a variety of issues, including financial and labour unrest. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the energy minister, promised when he took office that the refinery would be brought back up and fully operational.
BOST, on the other hand, has failed to fulfill its responsibility of maintaining Strategic Reserve Stocks for Ghana. BOST MD, Edwin Provencal had stated that “we have about two weeks [of reserve], but there is a key point here, even though we have two weeks I will not even term them as strategic reserves.”
OMCs
Global oil prices after dipping to about 68 dollars per barrel are currently inching towards 85 dollars a barrel, yet analysts are tipping the price to shoot up even further.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Energy Security (IES) is predicting that Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in the country are likely to sell petrol and diesel at GHC7.00 per litre at the pumps for the first time.
Petroleum prices are anticipated to rise by another 40 pesewas per litre in the second pricing window of January, according to the institute.
A statement signed by the research analyst of IES, Fritz Moses, said “on the back of the 7.42 percent increase in the price of Brent crude, the 9.46 percent increase in the price of Gasoline, the 8.52 percent increase in Gasoil price and the 0.3 percent depreciation of the local currency against the US Dollar; the Institute for Energy Security (IES) informs consumers to remain expectant of a further increase in fuel prices at the pumps, between Ghp30 to Ghp40 per litre.”
“The imminent price increases may force some OMCs to sell Gasoline and Gasoil at GHC7.00 per litre at the pumps for the first time,” the statement added.
Within the first pricing window, fuel prices at local pumps increased. Petroleum product prices per litre increased from around GHC6.50 on average at most pumps to GHC6.70 during the time period under consideration.
According to IES, the impending increase in fuel costs is owing to a 7.42 percent increase in the price of Brent oil, gasoline, and a little depreciation of the Ghana cedi.
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