Petrol to sell at 9,000

The Dispatch says it can reveal that in June 2000, a memorandum to the Ministry of Mines and Energy recommended a 46.3 per cent increase in the price of a gallon of premium to a 2,077.16 per litre (4.5 litres a gallon), about 9,347.22.

It said it has information also that there are nine different levies on the ex-refinery price. One is the exploration levy (supposed to be for Ghana National Petroleum Corporation) of 1.50 per litre and the Bulk Oil and Storage Transport (BOST) margin of 26 cedis per litre.

At the current consumption rate of 44 million litres of premium a month, GNPC rakes in 66 million cedis; BOST gets about 1.4 billion and the Road Fund (levy of 150 cedis per litre) get a tidy sum of 6.6 billion cedis a month.

Sources close to the Ministry of Mines and Energy confirmed to the paper that the June 2000 memo, signed by the then Chief Executive of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Limited, Mr W.S. Parker, revealed that TOR was losing 81 billion cedis a month because of the low prices of petroleum prices and recommended an increase of 91.75 per cent (premium); 47.48 per cent (kerosene) and 53.83 per cent (gas oil).

The Dispatch says as per the memo, a gallon of kerosene should have been sold at 8,134.65 cedis and a gallon of gas oil would have sold at 8,117,77.

Analysts believe that the least the NPP government can sell premium will be 9,000 cedis a gallon but could be as high as 12,000 cedis.