The National Petroleum Authority (NPA), has made it clear that the decision to regulate fuel prices under the gold for oil policy is only short-term and will be halted when large volumes of consignment arrive in the country.
Mr. Mohammed Abdul-Kudus, Communications Manager of the NPA, in an interview today Febraury 6, explained that the decision is to ensure that the prices of petroleum products imported under the Gold-for-Oil (G4O) programme reflect at the pumps to benefit consumers.
“Currently they are commingling, what it means is that they are taking from the G4O and what they take from the prevailing market price, so the pricing dynamic is different. So when the volume increases when we have OMCs taking mainly from G40 then we don’t need to put our eyes on it because then the pricing is clear.”
Mr Kudus
Per Mr Kudus account, “it is because of the non-clarity and difficulty in arriving at the price because of the insignificance of the quantity that has warranted our monitoring. We hope that when the product supply increases over time and hopefully takes off the current arrangement over time and we are able to tell that this OMC is not selling any product apart from G4O then pricing is easier and we are not going to have any difficulty in monitoring.”
The National Petroleum Authority announced that it will work with the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited to negotiate prices with international oil traders to ensure that the landed cost of products procured under the programme is always competitive.
The Authority, further disclosed that the initial 40,000 tonnes of diesel that arrived in January under the Gold-for-oil policy were valued at US$40 million.
The clarification by the communication officer of NPA comes after several calls by industry experts including the Institute of Energy Securities for the government to provide details on how much it spent on the initial consignment.
Speaking in an interview, Nana Amoasi VII, the Executive Director of of the Institute for Energy Security (IES), noted that the entire policy lacks transparency hence government must come clean on the entire deal.
“I think at this point we are all clear that the deal lacks transparency, it is not just shrouded in secrecy, but there are a lot of inconsistencies and confusion.
“We think that the government can come out clear and give indications to everybody not just where we are sourcing the fuel from but who is the intermediary in this transaction, how was he elected or selected, on what basis and how much is the intermediary earning per every metric tonne deal that we do.”
Nana Amoasi
Privatise TOR To Make It Productive
Meawhile, Nana Amoasi has called for the privatisation of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) as a way of dealing with the lasting crisis that affect the company.
Nana Amoasi VII expressed concern that the Akufo Addo led government was moving around sourcing for cheaper fuel under the gold for oil policy while TOR has the potential to refine crude that will significantly lead to cheaper fuel for consumers. He made known that the politicians have over the years been incompetent and inefficient in turning around the fortunes of TOR, hence the need for the government to privatise the refinery to make it efficiednt and vibrant.
“You go to TOR and you can have seven people sitting on a desk doing nothing. That is why we need to move TOR away from the political cycle and the politicians. Let us introduce some private hands that have the capacity to introduce some funding for the revamp of TOR and its operations.”
Nana Amoasi
According to the Executive Director, “If the private people are seen to be more efficient in its operations, the government will not get the opportunity to be putting on board its cronies who have no capacity to run the business of refining.”
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