Ghana: Petroleum Experts Urge Journalists To Look Beyond Fuel Price Headlines

Ghanaian journalists should look beyond fuel price increases and explain the market forces, regulation and supply constraints behind them, industry officials said at a training workshop in Accra.

Speaking at the one-day workshop, Dr. Riverson Oppong, chief executive of the Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies (COMAC), said accurate reporting was essential to helping consumers understand developments in the petroleum sector and avoid unnecessary anxiety.

The workshop, held under the theme “Petroleum Pricing and Downstream Sector Operations”, brought together journalists from television, radio, print and online media.

Oppong urged reporters to verify figures, question industry claims and explain how pricing and supply chains work, saying reports without sufficient context could deepen public confusion.

“Our aim is simpler: to help you add sharper questions, verify figures, and explain pricing and industry developments,” he said.

He added that COMAC wanted a lasting relationship with journalists “grounded in access, respect, and shared interest in helping Ghanaians understand an industry that affects us all.”

Speakers highlighted challenges beyond pump prices, including international market shocks, limited strategic fuel reserves, concerns over the quantity of fuel dispensed and a downstream market with more than 250 oil marketing companies and over 5,000 outlets.

Abass Tasunti, director of economic regulation and planning at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), explained the pricing formula used for Ghana’s twice-monthly fuel pricing windows.

He said the October pricing window reflected a 2.4% increase in petrol’s free-on-board (FOB) price to about $1,300 per tonne and a nearly 7% rise in diesel prices to around $1,400 per tonne, alongside a depreciation of the cedi.

Tasunti urged journalists to use NPA data to independently assess the likely effect of international prices and exchange rate movements on domestic fuel prices.

David Ampofo, chief executive of the Ghana Upstream Petroleum Chamber, said declining crude production was another concern, with higher oil prices sometimes masking the impact on revenue.

He also highlighted Ghana’s new onshore exploration frontier in the Voltaian Basin, where GNPC Explorco, a subsidiary of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), is preparing to drill.

He warned that onshore exploration would pose new social and environmental challenges requiring careful, non-partisan reporting.

Benjamin Nsiah, Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Management and Sustainable Energy said coverage focused too heavily on affordability, overlooking fuel availability, accessibility, acceptability and supply resilience.

He cited a Ghana Standards Authority audit that he said found about 60% of sampled outlets dispensing less fuel than customers paid for.

Nsiah said BOST’s total storage capacity was about 415,000 metric tonnes, equivalent to roughly 500 million litres, while national monthly consumption exceeded 500 million litres.

He argued that Ghana lacked meaningful state-controlled strategic fuel reserves and remained heavily dependent on a single main import jetty.

Paul E. Ofori, head of research at the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), said petrol’s FOB price had risen from about $652 per tonne at the start of 2026 to around $1,251 in September. Diesel prices had increased from roughly $695 to more than $1,500 per tonne over the same period, he said.

Ofori argued that strategic reserves covering six to eight weeks of consumption could have cushioned the impact of those increases.

Participating journalists received certificates at the end of the workshop, which COMAC said was intended to strengthen data analysis and reporting on the petroleum sector.