Fuel pricing: Ghana can’t meet consumer needs of crude products – NPA

Communications Director for the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Abdul Kudus Mohammed, has disclosed that Ghana cannot meet its consumer needs for crude, therefore suffering high cost of petroleum products.

According to him, the implications of the global pricing unit on Ghana’s refined products do not appear modest as it looks, rather the implications are more complex to expound.

In an interview on the Happy Morning Show, the NPA Communications Director mentioned that other products come along with crude, while most companies only go for specific products like diesel or petrol.

He again noted that the pricing on crude products is standardized while diesel and petroleum products have variations in pricing units.

“The issue of fuel pricing isn’t that straightforward. When crude prices go up or down, then the same implication should be in Ghana. But it’s not a straightforward implication like we expect. Crude is not the only thing we buy and in fact, because our refined rate is not working or the capacity does not meet the level to which they can meet the consumer needs of the Ghanaian public, most people do not buy crude.

"Some of the BDCs only buy petrol, others also buy only diesel, so it’s the refined products and not just crude and their pricing dynamics are different. For crude, it’s standardized but for petrol and diesel the dynamics are different,” he told Raymond Nyamador.

Meanwhile, the Unified Petroleum Price Fund (UPPF) margin on gasoline prices has been reinstated, according to the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).

It was noted that this was required to ensure that the country’s retail outlets could still carry petroleum products without being hampered.

The Authority added that if it had not taken action, the market’s supply of petroleum products may have suffered significantly.

The margin on gasoline and diesel will now each grow to 29 pesewas with the reintroduction of the UPPF. However, the price of gasoline has increased despite expectations that it would decrease by over 8%.