The Executive Secretary of Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah has noted that prices of fuel at various pumps cannot be reduced any further especially in this time when the country is battling with the deadly coronavirus.

In a statement, he indicated that though the WTI platform is currently trading at $15 which is the lowest in several decades, Brent, however, is still trading around $26.

This implies that "pump prices are very unlikely to see any reductions as is being expected by a cross section of the Ghanaian public".

In furtherance of his claim, Mr Amoah indicated that the Ghanaian market is largely Brent benchmark dependent and as such a collapse on WTI is quite unlikely to have any trickle down effect on local pump prices here.

Mr Amoah, however, said this is the right time for government to boost the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) in expanding its capacity to store in large quantities.

The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has forecasted that Ghana might lose out on its projected oil revenue generation following the recent drop of crude oil prices on the international market that plummeted around 30 percent.

Read below the full statement from COPEC

CHAMBER OF PETROLEUM CONSUMERS-GHANA

ACCRA

PETROLEUM NEWSFLASH

Social media is currently awash with news of the collapse of Oil prices internationally with a section of Ghanaians demanding this price collapse immediately reflect at the pumps.

Yes, it is indeed true that oil prices especially the WTI platform Is currently trading at -$15 which is about the lowest in several decades.

Brent however is still trading around $26 as at close of day and as such pump prices are very unlikely to see any reductions as is being expected by a cross section of the Ghanaian public.

The disparity in the two benchmarks is largely due to a supposed unavailability of storage space across the US market with some traders allegedly paying for cargo to be returned before the close of the futures market for the month of April on 22/04/20.

This pricing collapse is largely reflected on crude and has very little direct impact on processed or refined products and by extension local pump prices.

Moreover, the Ghanaian market is largely Brent benchmark dependent and as such a collapse on WTI is quite unlikely to have any trickle down effect on local pump prices here.

We do believe this notwithstanding, however, that the markets are ripe for the Ghana Government to consider helping The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) to get a good credit line or an open credit system in place immediately to stock Oil at this point for the country’s strategic reserves or stocking needs.

The Government should also consider getting our local refinery back to productivity in order to process Ghana’s oil locally as we understand some of our producers or Oil fields may be soon forced to shut down production due to lack of storage space globally.

Whatever security guarantees or arrangements that needs to be put in place to forestall any games with the strategic reserves must certainly be robust and efficient so the country does not lose on both the upstream and downstream ends due to the low prices being recorded on the international market currently.

Signed

Duncan Amoah

Executive Secretary