Selling oil to selected OMC’s may land in the hands of cronies and friends of the gov’t – IES

Selling crude to chosen Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) under the Gold for Oil Policy, according to the Institute of Energy Security (IES), will only benefit government insiders and allies.

The government’s action, according to IES, will put OMCs and participants in the petroleum downstream sector in a bad position.

The IES warning follows the National Petroleum Authority’s (NPA’s) announcement that, as part of the Gold for Oil Program, it will only distribute oil to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) with more than 45 locations.

The government’s primary goal in implementing the program, according to the NPA, is to guarantee that gasoline is reasonably priced.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Mustapha Hamid, said during the Meet the Press Series on Wednesday that he received a number of messages inquiring why the first consignment of the oil could not be reflected in rates at the pumps.

In an interview with media on Wednesday in response to the government statement, the Executive Director for IES, Nana Amoasi VII, asserted that the government must reevaluate its choice of the way of selling oil to OMCs under the Gold for Oil policy.

Four weeks ago, you hauled in about 40,000 metric tons, which is roughly equivalent to one week’s worth of our country’s usage.

Can this have an impact on Ghanaians and customer discretionary income?

Naturally, you should be meeting more than 50% of our country’s demand if you want to have any significant effect with that initiative involving the supposedly fuel.

But when it comes to other goods, 40,000 meter only makes up 10% of our monthly demand.

“If you are talking about diesel we consume roughly 150,000 metric tons a month. So if you brought 40,000 metric tons in one month and you want to have an impact on the market then of course you may be dreaming. It will not have any impact,” Nana Amoasi VII stated.

“So cutting some people out and giving the product out to others on selective terms of which we are quite concerned it may land in the hands of cronies and friends of the government. And others may have to struggle or beg to have access just to deviate from the price deregulation regime” he added.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com