Adnan Adams Mohammed
Fuel prices at the pumps have started coming down although slower than expectations of some downstream petroleum sector think-tanks.
GOIL, a market leader, reduced the pump prices for Diesel to GH₵19.77Petrol toGH₵16.26, this translate into about 3.5 percent reduction.
Although, the reductions were predicted in previous week by the Institute for Energy Security, the current reduction is slower than the rates it predicted. IES predicted rates of about 13.45% in petrol, 11.63% in diesel, and 1.88% in LPG prices.
“Prices of the various finished products will be affected by the 13.45% fall in the price of gasoline [petrol], the 11.63% fall in the price of gasoil [diesel], and the 1.88% fall in the price of LPG.
However, the IES said the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), is however expected to remain stable on account of the cedi’s depreciation.
The 3.09% depreciation of the cedi against the US dollar is expected to erode portions of the gains from the reductions in international fuel prices. The price of LPG is however expected to remain stable on account of the cedi’s depreciation”, the IES said.
Condequently, the Chamber of the Bulk Oil distributors has linked the reductions to improved supply of dollars from the Bank of Ghana and moves by the regulator to improve the liquidity of commercial banks.
This has helped improved lending to importers of petroleum products.
On the international market, Brent crude saw a 6.31% decrease in price over the previous window’s average price of $95.11 per barrel to the present average price of $89.11 per barrel.
