Adnan Adams Mohammed
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) in consultation with the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs) has devised an effective method to share arriving consignments of refined petroleum products trading under the Gold for Oil (G4O) programme.
The two parties agreed that, for the gains (reduced fuel prices) of the programme to be felt across the country, OMCs with less than 45 sales outlets will not receive share of the consignments.
The new method agreed is to also address concerns of the AOMCs regarding a lack of clarity regarding the allocation of products supplied under the programme to its members. The sharing criteria take into consideration the top 25 OMCs that distributed petrol and diesel in 2022 with not less than 45 retail outlets across the country.
“Better results are expected as more G4O cargoes arrive”, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, CEO of NPA said when speaking at the meet-the-press series in Accra last week.
The NPA Boss noted that, the country had received three cargoes so far, comprising 41,000 metric tonnes (MT) of diesel in January, and another 40,000MT of diesel and 35,000MT of petrol which has just arrived and being discharged.
The implementation of the G4O has slightly lowered the prices of petroleum products and reduced forex risk.
The meet-the-press under the auspices of the Ministry of Information that featured the NPA, focused on developments in the downstream petroleum industry on the theme: “Petroleum Downstream: Retrospect and Prospect.”
Tracing the situation before the implementation of the G4O programme, Dr Abdul-Hamid said average monthly petroleum product import bill ranged from $350 million to $400 million.
He said the petroleum downstream dollar demand accounted for 20 percent of national demand.
The NPA Boss noted that Bank of Ghana (BoG) commenced a special exchange rate auction programme for the petroleum downstream in April 2022, and indicated that the special auction programme could not meet 100 percent of forex demand in the country.
“Inadequacy of BoG supply pushes BIDECs to speculate forex rates arbitrarily based on proposed rates from commercial banks”, he said, and explained that the gold payment was mooted as a solution to the pressure that petroleum downstream put on the cedi.
Dr. Abdul-Hamid said the NPA regulates G40 products prices on the interim (Ex-ref price and Ex-pump prices).
He stated that the Authority had intensified price monitoring activities with penalties for defaulting service providers.
Touching on activities undertaken to ensure product quality and integrity, the NPA Boss mentioned the supply of low sulphur fuels (cleaner fuels), a maximum of 50ppm for imports and a maximum of 1500ppm for domestic production.
The NPA also undertakes periodic petroleum product monitoring exercises, conducts fuel marker monitoring and quality monitoring of fuel standards (Quality Control) including checking of water in fuel and collaborates with security agencies to prevent illegal imports, exports and product dumping.
Dr Abdul-Hamid said the Authority used technology (Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS), National Fuel Monitoring System (NFMS) and the Automatic Tank Gauge system) to ensure intended delivery of petroleum products along the petroleum downstream value chain.
He mentioned the revocation of licenses and publication of the names of defaulting Petroleum Service Providers (PSPs) and Laycans allocation and monitoring to ensure adequate supply as some of the activities undertaken to ensure order in the downstream petroleum industry.
