Fuel Prices Won’t Be Increased

The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has predicted that prices of fuel will remain unchanged at the pumps for the first pricing window in September.

“Despite the rise in price of Brent Crude on the international market, prices of finished products have experienced slight reduction in the case of gasoline and a very marginal increase, less than 0.2%, in the case of gasoil. With the cedi making some gains against the dollar, the institute projects that prices at the pump will remain relatively stable,” Research Analyst at IES, Mikdad Mohammed stated in a press release on Wednesday, 29 August 2018.

In its review for the month of August 2018, IES said Brent Crude spot price saw an increase from its previous trading price of $72.81 per barrel to $76.02 per barrel within the window. Average Brent Crude, however, reduced slightly from $73.43 per barrel to $73.03 per barrel.

“This is explained by the fact that the global crude benchmark hit the $70 price, its biggest spot price decline in more than three months. For finished products, gasoline went down by 0.18% while gasoil also went up by 0.10%, closing trading, respectively at $735.18 per metric tonne and $653.55 per metric tonne, according to Standard and Poor’s Global Platts analysis,” the statement said.

On the performance of the Ghanaian cedi on the international currency market, IES said their figures show the cedi has experienced a marginal appreciation against the trading currency, the US dollar. The dollar is going for GHS4.80 currently, as against GHS4.83 in the last pricing window. Across the various fuel terminals in the country, no gasoil was received over the period. An amount of 43,600 metric tonnes of gasoline and 6,300 metric tonnes of LPG, was offloaded.

In the last pricing window for the month of August, prices of fuel at the pumps experienced a 2% increase in the window under review.

Gasoline and gasoil average price of GHS4.85 per litre increased to GHS4.95 litre during the first weekend of the window. Gasoline and gasoil prices were later readjusted to GHS4.90 and GHS4.94, respectively, across all the major Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).

Current national average prices of both gasoline and gasoil at the pump, are GHS4.89 and GHS4.93, respectively.

IES’ market scan shows Benab Oil sells the lowest-priced fuel on the market relative to other OMCs; followed by Frimps Oil and Zen Petroleum. Other relatively low-cost fuel can be sourced from Pacific Oil, Lucky Oil and Alinco Oil.

Source: ClassFMonline