Consumers should expect an increase in the price of fuel they purchase at the various pumps from Tuesday, September 19, 2017, as Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) begin to adjust their prices to reflect the increase in the prices of their products.
Predictions by the Institute of Energy Security (IES) indicate that prices will go up by at least 7 percent for the second pricing window in September.
The gradual increase in petroleum products over the past month has been triggered by the marginal depreciation of the cedi, as well as increased global crude oil prices due to the recent floods in the US which affected production at major oil companies.
The Principal Research Analyst at the Institute of Energy Security, Richmond Rockson, explaining the phenomenon, said “We are expecting prices to rise between seven and ten percent, and this will have an impact on consumers.
This probably will be the most significant. The cedi also keeps depreciating. After the storm Harvey, refineries were affected so prices will definitely go upâ€.
{loadmodule mod_banners,nativeads}
An analysis of the first seven months of 2017, shows that the prices of petroleum products have gone up five times out of the fourteen pricing windows in the period.
The year started with perhaps the highest percentage rise in prices of petroleum products. The prices of petrol and diesel went up by as much as 7.73% and 6.68% respectively.
This continued until March 15th, when the prices started to drop marginally.
Although the year began with a litre of petrol and diesel selling at 4 cedis 4 pesewas, and 3 cedis 99 pesewas respectively, as at the middle of March, the price for the same quantity each of petrol and diesel had gone up to 4 cedis 30 pesewas, and 4 cedis 25 pesewas respectively.
In all, the first four months of 2017 witnessed an average increase in prices of 3 percent.
At the time, industry watchers attributed the development to the decision by oil-producing countries to hold back production in January in order to recoup some of their recent losses.
In addition was the cedi’s depreciation against the dollar coupled with a drop in the combined stock of Gasoline and Gasoil from about 130 to 120 thousand metric tonnes.
Read also:Â Â Petroleum ex-pump prices lower than NPA estimates in August
www.primenewsghana.com/Â Ghana News