Ghana-Fuel Prices Shoot Up

Prices of fuel in Ghana have shot up after recent upsurge in the prices of crude oil on the world market.The indicative maximum price of premium petrol is now up by 4.11% to 97.78 pesewas per litre from 93.92 pesewas per litter quoted last month.Kerosene also shot up by 8.76% from 79.38 pesewas per litre to 86.25pesewas per litre.However, the indicative maximum price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) shot up significantly by 20.72% from 81.10 pesewas per GHp/Kg to 97.90 pesewas GHp/Kg which may be due to taxi drivers powering their engines with LPG.

The price of gasoline was not spared the shakeup as it also increased by 5.35% from 90.44 pesewas to 95.28 pesewas per litre.The indicative maximum price is a price beyond which an Oil Market Company (OMC) in Ghana is not allowed to sell petroleum products.It could be recalled that Oil prices, traded near a record high of US$93 a barrel and threatens an all time hit of US$100 if political tension and speculation continue in the Middle East, the hub of the oil industry.

Oil hit an all-time high of US$93.07 a barrel yesterday, because of the violence between Turkish soldiers and Kurdish guerrillas and a record low of the US dollar.According to officials from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), oil has risen for reason unrelated to supply and demand and that there is little the exporter group can do to lower price.OPEC is set to raise oil output by 500,000 barrels per day from November 11-18, 2007 in Riyadh for their third Heads of State Summit, an event that is usually a talking shop that makes no decision on supply policy.

Reasons adduced to the increases, according to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the NPA, Mr. Steve Larbi are not far fetched from the indicators on the futures market.The National Petroleum Authority ACT 691 was enacted by the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana to regulate, oversee and monitor activities in the petroleum downstream industry; to establish a Unified Petroleum Price Fund; and to provide for related purposes.
Source:Ghanaian Chronicle