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Nana Amoasi VII, CEO of the Institute of Energy Security, has questioned the wisdom of the government’s efforts to find cheap fuel.
The initiative, according to Nana Amoasi VII, is highly improbable.
In his speech to the nation on Sunday, October 30, 2022, President Akufo-Addo declared that the administration is attempting to find a consistent supply of reasonably priced petroleum products for the Ghanaian market.
He claims that if this agreement is effective and there is monetary stability, it will stop the rise in gasoline costs and provide Ghanaians relief.
A government delegation is now in Abu Dhabi negotiating a contract to introduce petroleum goods onto the Ghanaian market, according to information accessible to the media.
The primary players guiding the negotiations are Perry Okudzeto, Deputy Chief Executive of NPA, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, Managing Director of Bulk Oil Storage Transportation Limited, Edwin Provencal, and.
The IES CEO, however, advised the team to exercise prudence in their search in a media interview on Wednesday.
This is due to the fact that no foreign market would be prepared to distribute petroleum goods at a steep discount, he said.
“I don’t know who is advising the Energy Minister, because the venture they are undertaking is far from possibility. This is not how the energy sector works, so they should be careful,” he stated.
The search for affordable, dependable fuel should not be an effort to “squander the country’s few resources, an attempt to enrich a few persons to the disadvantage of over 30 million Ghanaians, or a purposeful endeavor to raise the energy sector debt,” according to Nana Amoasi VII.
The team should be forced to publish the entire discount value they are able to negotiate, he said, given the possibility that they are successful in their search.
“They must tell Ghanaians what they also gave in return for that favour. And also, we must be very careful, our fear as IES is that they could be giving out something for free in order to get that discount.
“If there is a market that can give you a cheap discount to beat all the markets all over the world, I am sure the BDCs would have gone for it. So let us be careful of the venture that we are undertaking,” he advised.
In a similar event, John Jinapor, the ranking member of the Parliament’s Energy Committee, has warned the administration against its ambitions to get less expensive petroleum products for the Ghanaian market.
He said that the government would not be able to find petroleum products anywhere else in the world for the much-reduced price and discounted margins it is seeking.
There is no such thing as a free lunch in the petroleum sector.
They too have difficulties, but more precisely, as I already mentioned, we are anticipating timetables from the President in the next month, two months, three weeks, or perhaps one week, he said.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
