The National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the body regulating operations of the petroleum downstream sector says it will protect consumers of petroleum products from a possible increase in the global price of crude oil.
This is the assurance coming from the Chief Executive of the NPA, Moses Asaga. According to him, the move is to ensure that consumers of petroleum products are not exploited by the various oil marketing companies with the implementation of the petroleum price deregulation policy.
Mr. Asaga who confirmed this in an interview on Citi FM also said the price stabilization margin which will be accruing into the Bank of Ghana (BoG) account will be effected when the global price reaches the 80 dollars per barrel mark.
“We the NPA have anticipated this whilst we were doing the deregulation, so as part of the price build up, we have set up what we call a price stabilization margin, and that will be one that will be accruing into the BoG account, “Therefore this will be kept when there is a rainy day and immediately when the price start inching above 80 dollars, we will move in and trigger the price stabilization margin, so that is taken care of,” Mr. Asaga said.
Some analysts have also cast doubt at a possible decline in the ex-pump prices of petroleum products any time soon. Their basis is that the continuous depreciation of the cedi will make it unproductive for oil marketing companies to reduce prices of petroleum products following huge foreign exchange losses.
Source: citifmonline