Gold-for-Oil deal: Fuel prices to reduce by March – NPA

The National Pe­troleum Authority (NPA) has assured the public that the Gold for Oil (G40) initiative will meet 50 per cent of the country’s oil demands by March 2023.

According to the NPA, this would lead to lower ex-pump pric­es in the country.

A statement issued in Accra yesterday by the NPA said it would work with the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) to negotiate prices with the international oil traders, to ensure that the landed cost of products procured under the programme always comply with the competitive.

The statement said all Bulk Import, Distribution, and Export Companies (BIDECs) and Oil Marketing Companies who wish to purchase products under the G4O programme would be required to sign off an undertaking confirm­ing their willingness to comply with the terms and conditions for partaking in the purchase and sale of G4O products.

The implementation of the gov­ernment’s G4O programme which commenced with the arrival of the first consignment of about 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel on January 15, 2023, valued at about US$40 million.

The first consignment of 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel, the statement explained constituted about 10 per cent of the country’s combined monthly demand for petrol and diesel and is expected to gradually increase imports under G4O to constitute about 50 per cent of the country’s total demand of petrol and diesel by March 2023.

It said the prime objective of the programme was to use additional foreign exchange resources from the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase (DGP) programme to provide foreign currency for the importation of petroleum products for the country which currently stands at about US$350 million per month.

The statement stated that the implementation of the G4O would ease pressure on the dollar (the currency used for the importa­tion of petroleum products) and avoid the occasional increases in petroleum prices resulting from the depreciation of the cedi against the dollar.

It said the programme would ensure that the cost of importing the products from international oil traders would be comparative­ly cheaper, adding “payment for oil supply is to be done in two channels by way of barter trade where gold is exchanged for oil or via broker channel where the gold is converted into cash and paid to the supplier.”

The statement said the conse­quent reduction in foreign ex­change pressures and premiums charged by international oil traders as well as efficiency gains from the value chain would lead to lower ex-pump prices in the country.

The NPA explained that “all these would ensure that the price of petroleum products import­ed under the G4O programme reflects at the pumps to benefit the consumer, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) will regulate the prices of the products in the interim until the volumes increase significantly.”

“The price at which BOST will sell the products to bulk import, distribution, and export companies (BIDECs) will be approved by the NPA and the price at which the BIDECs will sell the products to oil marketing companies (OMCs) will also be approved by the NPA,” it added.