The Institute for Energy Security (IES) is forecasting between 16 and 24% drop in prices of fuel on the local market in the first Pricing-window for April 2020.
According to Institute for Energy Security This is due to the significant fall of 33.36% in price of Brent crude, coupled with the considerable drop in the prices of petrol (51.29%) and diesel(27.96%) on the international market. Crude oil prices remain largely below $30-margin for this window due to a drowning global oil market as a result of unmanageable surplus as world’s largest economies lockdown, cutting consumption by 25%.
However, the cedi depreciated by 4.68% against the U.S. dollar in the last two weeks, trading at an average price of GH¢5.59. This is from the previous rate of GH¢5.34 recorded in the first Pricing-window of March, 2020.
Meanwhile, fuel prices at the pump experienced some 8.8% average reductions across some major Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), as against the National Petroleum Authority’s pronouncement of 15% reduction for the Pricing-window under review.
While Shell (Vivo) reduced petrol and diesel by roughly 4.3%, Goil and Total Ghana shaved-off approximately 11% for petrol and diesel.
Zen Petroleum on the hand gave away a whopping 14% for both products to sell at GH¢4.25 per litre, thus making it the OMC with the least selling price on the market.
As a result, the national average price of fuel per litre at the pump stands at GH¢4.88 and GH¢4.90 for petrol and diesel respectively.
ALSO READ:Banking Sector: All you need to know about banking in Ghana
Aside Zen Petroleum, Benab Oil, Nick Petroleum, Frimps Oil and Champion Oil were counted by IES Market-scan as some of the OMCs with least-priced fuels on the local market, relative to others in the downstream petroleum sector.
Meanwhile, as Ghana goes into a 14-day partial lockdown, the Gas and Fuel filling station will remain open during the two weeks lockdown in some parts of Ghana, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has assured. They have thus announced that there is no fuel shortage.
