Adnan Adams Mohammed
Prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is expected to fall by 5 percent within the first half of this month, the Institute for Energy Security has projected.
Within same period prices of petrol and diesel are expected to remain the same.
The IES puts it down to the Ghana cedi’s strong performance on the domestic forex market in the last two weeks, and the drop in the price of LPG on the international market, even though international prices of the liquid products shot up.
“The Institute for Energy Security’s review of prices over the past two weeks as monitored by Global Standard & Poor (S&P) platform indicate the prices of Gasoline [petrol] and Gasoil [diesel] have increased at 4.20% and 2.70%, respectively, whereas Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) decreased by 5.80%”.
“The Ghana cedi also gained 5.42% against the U.S dollar over the two weeks trading period on domestic forex market,” it added.
On the local market, the IES said the ex-pump prices as it has observed in the second pricing window for May 2023, fell at an average 3% for both petrol and diesel, with most oil marketing companies (OMCs) selling the two products at the same price in the window.
The IES said its monitoring of various OMCs during the pricing window under review finds the national average price per litre for petrol and diesel at GH¢11.90 and LPG at about ¢13 per kilogramme.
On the world market, the IES said the price of Brent crude oil continued trading below US$80 per barrel in the last two weeks.
The average price per barrel over the window traded at about US$75.90 per barrel.
Meanwhile, some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have started increasing prices of petroleum products at the pumps.
Goil has taken the lead, selling at litre of diesel and petrol at ¢12.45 from its previous price of ¢12.30 a litre.
The increase is in line with the biweekly review of prices at the pumps.
The latest increase, according to some stakeholders is due to the cedi’s performance and the price of crude oil on the international market.
It is expected that more OMCs will also adjust prices of petroleum products upward later today, June 1, 2023.
Apparently, the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC) has projected a marginal decline in the prices of fuel in the first pricing window of June 2023.
COPEC attributes this projection to the relative stability of the forex rates although the international market benchmark prices of crude oil haven’t been that favorable.
The Chamber is further predicting that the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is expected to decline by roughly 5% during the same period.
Duncan Amoah, the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC), said in an interview last week, “the first pricing window for June looks relatively stable although per our figures some OMCs may decline marginally on current pump prices”.
“This informed by a relative stability of some relative gains the cedi would have made within the period. International market benchmarks have not been good as witnessed in the past window,” he added.
As of May 29, 2023, the price of gasoline in Ghana stood at 13.2 Ghanaian cedis (GHS) per liter, corresponding to roughly 1.19 U.S. dollar.
This decreased from the prices in December 2022 but considerably increased compared to most of the previous weeks observed.
Since January 3, 2022, the price of gasoline in Ghana has increased by over 91 percent.
At some OMCs both petrol and diesel were selling at GHS 12.30 as at May 29, 2023.
