Page 10 - AfrOil Week 03 2023

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

COPEC slams Ghana’s big fuel

companies over high prices

GHANA THE Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana
(COPEC), a consumer protection think tank,
has raised concerns over alleged overcharging
by major oil marketing companies (OMCs) such
as France’s TotalEnergies, Shell of the UK and
Ghana Oil, Citi News reports.
“We were expecting prices to be within a cer-
tain range. Fortunately, the smaller OMCs seem
to have done a very good job of being price sen-
sitive. What you find with the bigger OMCs cur-
rently is not encouraging,” COPEC’s executive
secretary Duncan Amoah said in an interview.
“If you input the numbers we got with the
National Petroleum Authority per the window
with what the BDC [bulk distributing company] COPEC has criticised Shell and other large OMCs (Photo: Twitter/@Shell_Ghana)
prices are, we really don’t see where the justifi-
cation is in charging above GHS12 [$0.98] per with FX supply as well as gains made by the cedi
this window.” after the government agreed a $3bn bailout with
Prices of petroleum products have risen the IMF last month had prices falling with petrol
globally since the Russian invasion of Ukraine selling around GHS13.00 ($1.06) per litre and
in February 2022. The sharp depreciation of the diesel around GHS16.1 ($1.31) per litre.
cedi, which was down 55% against the US dollar “We are calling on the bigger three [OMCs]
before a rally in mid-December, partially due to particularly to reflect what the numbers should
forex challenges, exacerbated the situation. actually be for this window,” Duncan is quoted
However, interventions by the Bank of Ghana as saying. ™

Ghana Gas saving $3mn per month by

utilising local labour force at gas plant

GHANA GHANA National Gas Co. Ltd (Ghana Gas)
has saved the country about $3mn per month
through its localisation programme, which saw
local engineers replacing their Chinese counter-
parts at the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant during
the period between 2017 and 2022, Citi News
reports.
“We like to work with the Chinese, but we
didn’t want to stay with them for too long. Indig-
enous Ghanaian engineers and technicians took
over the operations of this plant. I have worked
in this industry for 31 years and this is the first
time I’ve seen such a turnaround, having for-
eign operators cede operatorship to indigenous Ghana Gas has been striving to localise its workforce (Photo: Ghana Gas)
engineers and technicians in the shortest time,
which is three years,” Ghana Gas’ CEO Benja- month,” Asante added.
min Asante said. He went on to say that in line with that devel-
“While we are at it, we save $3mn a month opment, Ghana Gas had intensified the training
because that is how much we pay the Chinese a of its local engineers and technicians.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 03 19•January•2023