Managing Director of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST), Edwin Provencal, has noted that the government's gold for oil policy is unable to shield Ghanaians from the changes in petroleum product prices on the world market.

According to him, the policy is only able to address the issue of forex exchange, where the Bank of Ghana, through its Domestic Gold Purchase (DGP) programme, provides foreign currency for the importation of petroleum products for the country, which currently stands at about US$350 million per month.

Engaging the media on the sidelines of BOST’s 2nd Annual General Meeting on August 17, he said: “The gold for oil policy was a temporary measure put in place to deal with the inflationary pressure that befell us last year.

“The price build-up has two key components. One is the world market price, and the other is the forex. The gold for oil has addressed the forex issue, but if the world market price keeps going up, there is not much gold for oil can do about that.”

His comment comes at a time when some Oil Market Companies (OMCs) have increased prices of petroleum products at the pumps.

TotalEnergies has increased the price of petrol to GHS13.50 per litre from GHS12.45 per litre at the beginning of the month.

Diesel is also going for GHS13.90 per litre from the previous price of GHS12.45 per litre. Goil has also increased prices petrol to GHS3.50 and diesel to GHS13.90 per litre.

This has been linked to an increase in the prices of finished products on the international market by an average of around 11% for both petrol and diesel.

According to the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, crude price has also increased by 6.79% from the mean price of $80.67/barrel to $86.15/barrel even though the forex or dollar exchange rate has relatively decreased from a previous average of GHS11.7185 to GHS11.4538 (-2.26%) per $1.

In July this year, Saudi Arabia and Russia announced that they were extending cuts to the amount of oil they pump into the world in a bid to prop up prices.

The Saudi Energy Ministry said it would extend July’s cut of 1 million barrels per day through August to support “the stability and balance of oil markets.” That will keep the Gulf nation’s output at 9 million barrels per day.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak on the other hand, said his country will cut production by an additional 500,000 barrels a day in August.

Source: The Independent Ghana | Andy Ogbarmey-Tettey