Page 9 - AfrOil Week 47 2022

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

The minister added that it is no secret that ready to intervene.”
OPEC+ does not discuss any decisions before Meanwhile, UAE Minister of Energy and
its meetings, Saudi Press Agency reported. Infrastructure Suhail Mohamed Al-Mazrouei
Prince Abdulaziz repeated that the cartel’s denied that his country is “engaging in any dis-
decision to cut production by 2mn bpd will cussion with other OPEC+ members to change
stand till the end of 2023. the last agreement which is valid until the end of
He said: “If there is a need to take further 2023. We remain committed to the OPEC+ aim
measures to reduce production to restore bal- to balance the oil market and will support any
ance between supply and demand, we are always decision to achieve that goal.” ™

POLICY
Ghana announces “gold for imported oil”

policy amid dwindling forex reserves

GHANA GHANA is negotiating a new government mined gold for oil is one of the most important
policy that would allow for the payment of economic policy changes in Ghana since inde-
imported petroleum products with gold rather pendence,” Bawumia said.
than US dollars. If well implemented, he said, the policy will
The move is expected to boost the country’s fundamentally change Ghana’s balance of pay-
forex supply and reduce prices for petroleum ment and significantly reduce the persistent
products in the country, Vice President Dr. depreciation of the cedi, which has already lost
Mahamudu Bawumia announced in a Facebook some 60% of its value against the US dollar since
post on November 24. January.
He explained that the demand for foreign Ghana’s Gross International Reserves stood
exchange by fuel importers in the face of dwin- at roughly $6.6bn at the end of September,
dling reserves has contributed to the deprecia- equating to less than three months of imports
tion of the national currency, the cedi, and the cover, down from around $9.7bn at the end of
cost of living crisis. 2021, according to the government.
“To address this challenge, Government is While Ghana is an oil-producing country,
negotiating a new policy regime where our gold it has relied on imports for refined petroleum
(rather than the US dollar reserves) will be used products since its only refinery shut down in
to buy oil products. The barter of sustainably 2017 following an explosion. ™

Bawumia has posted a video explaining the policy on various social media sites (Screenshot from YouTube)

Week 47 24•November•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9