The price of a litre of fuel has crossed the GH¢ 7 mark for the first time at some pumps across the country.
Checks by Citi Business News as of 9 pm on Sunday, January 16, 2022, showed that while a litre of petrol and diesel was going for GH¢ 6.50 at Goil, Shell was selling both at GH¢ 6.80.
Total, however, was selling a litre of petrol at Gh¢ 6.99 and a litre of diesel at Gh¢ 7.05.
The development is expected to in the coming weeks spur other smaller OMCs to also adjust their prices upwards.
The Institute for Energy Security (IES) last week said it expects fuel prices at the pumps to hit GH¢7 per litre in the second pricing window of this month, January 2022.
Fuel prices per litre at most pumps around the country dropped to around GH¢6.50 on average in the past few weeks, but quickly rose to reach an average of GH¢6.70 at most pumps.
The IES Market-Scan picked Star Oil, Benab Oil, PetroSankofa, Goodness Oil and Top Oil as the OMCs with the least-priced Gasoline and Gasoil on the local market for the pricing window under review.
In an interview with Citi Business News, the Executive Director of IES, Nana Amoasi VII, stated that the expected jump in prices will be driven by price developments on the international market.
“The coming pricing window which starts on Sunday may see the price of petrol and diesel go up on the local market. This is on the back of happenings on the international market. Over the past 2 weeks, Brent Crude Oil has moved from about $77 to about $83 per barrel, representing an increase of about 8%. While the price of Gasoline increased by 9.46% to close the window at $774.94 per metric tonne, the Price of Gasoil also increased within the period by 8.52% to close trading at $696.00 per metric tonne from its earlier price of $641.38 per metric tonne.”
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) two weeks ago also insisted that ex-pump prices of petrol and diesel may increase by 24 and 17 pesewas, respectively.
Prices of fuel products have over the period surged due to the increment in crude oil prices on the international market, inflation and the depreciation of the Ghana cedi.