The Institute for Energy Security (IES), says consumers should expect fuel prices at the pumps to hit GH¢7 per litre in the second pricing window of this month, January.
Fuel prices per litre at most pumps around the country dropped to around GH¢ 6.50 on average in the past few weeks, but have now risen once again to reach an average of Gh¢6.70 at most pumps.
The IES Market-Scan picked Star Oil, Benab Oil, PetroSankofa, Goodness Oil and Top Oil as the OMCs with the least-priced Gasoline and Gasoil on the local market for the pricing window under review.
Pump prices at these OMCs ranged between GH¢6.52 and Gh¢6.43 per litre for both products.
Conversely, the OMCs with the highest-priced products per litre were Total, Shell, Engen, Shell (Vivo) and Puma, selling between GH¢6.75 and Gh¢6.85 per litre for the two major liquid fuels.
In an interview with Citi Business News, the Executive Director of IES, Nana Amoasi VII, stated that the expected jump in prices will be driven by price developments on the international market.
“The coming pricing window which starts on Sunday may see the price of petrol and diesel go up on the local market. This is on the back of happenings on the international market. Over the past 2 weeks, Brent Crude Oil has moved from about $77 to about $83 per barrel, representing an increase of about 8%. While the price of Gasoline increased by 9.46% to close the window at $774.94 per metric tonne, the Price of Gasoil also increased within the period by 8.52% to close trading at $696.00 per metric tonne from its earlier price of $641.38 per metric tonne.”
“Since we are price takers, these happenings on the international market will impact the local market. Though the Cedi depreciated marginally against the US Dollar, it won’t make a big change. We are therefore likely to see diesel and petrol selling at around GH¢ 7.00 per litre for the first time,” he added.
