There will be a substantial rise in petroleum products in the nation as of October 16, according to the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC).
This price hike is part of COPEC’s planned changes for the month’s second pricing period.
COPEC forecasts an average price increase of roughly 10.12% for both gasoline and diesel due to the rise in price of crude oil on the international market and the devaluation of the cedi, based on numbers seen within the downstream sector and FX movements.
“Between the current window and the next window due, 16 Oct 2022, Crude oil price is observed to have seen an increase of 3.66% from $89.46 to $92.73 per Barrel, whilst the Dollar index has further gone up by about 4.08% from GHS10.21 to GHS10.627 per Dollar as per Government rate (Conservative figures) though actual market rates are quite higher currently,” COPEC observed.
COPEC in a statement, therefore, implored the petroleum service providers to be considerate of applying the full force of the indexes in their pricing.
It added: “We are without equivocation, mindful that, the projected figures are conservatively lower than what the actuals could be due to the continuous depreciation of the local currency.”
It further admonished: “Government to do whatever it deems necessary, to ensure an urgent stabilisation of the cedi to the Dollar exchange rate in order to prevent pricing of petroleum products getting to an impending disaster as the effect of these steep increases in fuel prices cuts across all sectors of the local economy and to also further ensure some drastic reductions of some of the existing taxes and levies on Petroleum products to help ease the burden on consumers.”
The corresponding international processed Petroleum prices for the next window average as follows:
Petrol: $964.75/MT (up by 15.72%)
Diesel: $1,097.15/MT (up by 9.60%)
Internally, the projected average price of both Petrol and Diesel for the next window are expected to be GHS13.77/L, showing a price jump of 10.12% over the current Mean fuel Prices for both products across the various OMCs trading.
From observed data, Petrol, which is currently selling at an industry average of GHS11.06/L is likely to be sold at GHS12.38/L (11.88% higher) from 16 October 2022 whilst Diesel currently selling at an industry average of GHS13.95/L is likely to be sold at GHS15.16/L. (8.72% higher)
For LPG, the international price is estimated to hit $618.34/MT (up by 3.81%); the price of LPG is likely to go up by 5.04% to sell around GHS10.21/kg.