Deregulating OMCs has benefited Ghanaians - NPA

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has observed that the deregulation policy introduced in the downstream sector has encouraged competition which in the long run benefits consumers.

According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NPA, Alhassan Tampuli, the regulatory body allowing marketers and importers of petroleum products to sell directly to consumers by setting their own prices has allowed many more OMCs into the market.

Speaking in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NPA, Alhassan Tampuli explained: “With the proliferation of Oil and Marketing Companies (OMCs) comes competition. The competition will naturally force people to price within a certain range. So competition really is to the benefit of the consumer. The price of petroleum products these days are determined by more or less three forces; the price on the international market, the foreign exchange and the levies and margins of which the margins include the OMCs margins and the dealer’s margin.

Now the OMCs fight each other on the prices in order to be able to make more volumes. So they will reduce the price by reducing their margin in order to be able to meet their operational expenses, make good returns on investments and to be able to attract the consumer”.

In 2015, the Parliament of Ghana passed the National Petroleum Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2015 into law. The law was to ensure that the full cost recovery and uniformity in the pricing of petroleum products would be determined by the market and competition.

Under the previous law, the National Petroleum Authority had the mandate to price petroleum products in the country.