Research and Policy Analyst at the Institute for Energy Security (IES), Yakubu Adam believes the fuel market demands will swallow up the first consignment of 41,000 metric tonnes of fuel imported by the government under the Gold for Oil deal.
Mr. Adam in an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse explained that the 41,000 metric tonnes is not enough for the market since it just covers only 25 per cent of fuel consumption for a month in the Ghanaian market.
Government on January 8, 2023, took delivery of the first consignment of petroleum products under the Gold for Oil policy.
The 41,000 metric tonnes of oil was expected to help stabilise fuel prices in the country.
However, Yakubu Adam argued that the first consignment cannot influence fuel prices as the market currently consumes about 160,000 tonnes monthly.
“Why we are not seeing the effect with the Gold for Oil deal is that the quantum of petroleum that was brought in by government in the first attempt was about 41,000 metric tonnes of diesel and that is just about 25% of our consumption for a month. How is that able to influence prices when we do dome 160,000 tonnes monthly?
“If you do the calculation, you realise it was just a week’s consumption so the market will eventually swallow it,” he said on Monday.
This follows the prediction by the IES for a 7% to 13% increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), from February 1, 2023, for the next two weeks.
This means petrol will sell at about GH¢15 per litre, whilst diesel will go for over GH¢17 per litre.
According to the IES, the rise in domestic fuel prices is due to the sharp depreciation of the cedi during the last two weeks and the rising international fuel prices as observed on the global S&P Platts platform.
He, therefore, called on government to make public the policy document on the deal to allow consumers and energy think tanks like IES to question the details of the document.
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