Ghana’s petroleum downstream regulator, NPA, has assured Ghanaians that there is adequate fuel and hence should not panic.
“We have enough stock, and we have other vessels at anchorage to discharge,” Communications Manager at the NPA, Mohammed Abdul Kudus told energyaewsafrica.com.
This comes on the back of a Bloomberg report that said the West African nation faced a looming fuel shortage as the Central Bank rationed dollars after oil prices surged, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It said the monthly fuel import bill for the country increased to $450 million in May from $250 million in January.
The report said the Central Bank was only offering about $100 million a month at its foreign exchange auctions, and that licensed bulk distributors could no longer plug the shortfall in the black market.
Sharing his view of the report, Senyo Hosi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, confirmed that there are challenges in getting enough dollars.
“Yes, we are having challenges accessing dollars and if that continues, we will not be able to buy fuel. That has been anticipated and we are working with the respective institutions to keep the situation stable,” he said.
Mr Hosi said though the Bank of Ghana (BoG), through a special dispensation, was providing Bulk Oil Distributing Companies (BDCs) dollars, it was not enough.
“The BoG started with giving BDCs 50 per cent of our required dollars. This has been scaled down to about 25 per cent. We had to go to the open market to buy additional forex to supplement it,” he said.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com