Fuel prices: GPRTU to meet and decide way forward
The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has said they are yet to receive feedback from a petition they sent to the government on fuel prices.
Head of Public Relations at GPRTU, Alhaji Imoro, told Alfred Ocansey on the Sunrise show on 3fm Monday, January 17 that GPTRU will meet today tp decide the way forward.
“We have sent a petition to the government but we haven’t heard anything. We will fix a meeting date today and decide what to do next,” he said.
This comes after Total Oil increased the price of diesel per litre from 6 cedis 85 pesewas to 7 cedis 05 pesewas on Sunday January 16.
The price of Petrol has also been increased from 6 cedis 80 pesewas to 6 cedis 99 pesewas per litre.
Percentage-wise, a litre of Diesel at Total’s service stations in the country has gone up by 2.91 percent per litre and 2.79 percent for the price Petrol per litre.
The upward adjustments come after the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) had predicted that prices of petrol and diesel were expected to surge by 3.7% and 2.5% respectively.
In nominal terms, COPEC said, ex-pump prices of petrol and diesel were expected to increase by 24 pesewas and 17 pesewas respectively.
“The average surge for both products in nominal terms is 20 pesewas representing 3.1%. Some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) could increase their prices less than the 20 pesewas increase due to competition,” a statement issued by COPEC indicated on Monday January 3.
It added “Brent crude plunged by 10.7% to $73.45/barrel on the 26th November 2021 and the OPEC Reference Basket (OPB) plunged by 6.9% to $76.09/barrel on the same date.
“The OPB further tumbled to $70.07/barrel on 2nd December, 2021. The plummeting crude oil prices was due to the new Omicron Variant new COVID-19 Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant which restricted mobility in some countries, and the expectation of gradual increment of oil production by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) +.
“However, Brent crude futures settled up $1.56, or 2.1%, at $76.85 a barrel, the highest close since Nov. 26, and a gain of 4.5% on the week as of 23rd December 2021. Additionally, the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures ended up $1.03, or 1.4%, at $73.79 a barrel, to rise 4.1% on the week as at 23rd December 2021. The surge in crude oil prices is due to Libyan
supply disruptions cutting the supply of about 300,000 b/d and the lower anxiety towards the new Omicron variant because of the perception that, the variant is containable than previously feared.
“In Ghana, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) indicated that the benchmark price for petrol/MT for setting the ex-pump price of petrol in the 1st Window of January 2022 is $707.95/MT.
“Again, the Benchmark price for diesel/MT for setting the ex-pump price in the same widow is $641.38/MT. The NPA set the Ghana Cedi at Ghc6.4040 against a dollar.”