Why OMCs with 46 outlets and more will benefit from Gold for Oil programme
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, says his outfit will only sell oil to Oil Marketing Company (OMC) with more than 45 outlets under the Gold for Oil Programme.
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According to him, the ultimate aim of the government in introducing the program is to ensure that fuel is affordable.
Dr Hamid opined that for the impact of the G4O programme to be felt by consumers across the country, government has decided on the top 25 OMCs that distributed petrol and diesel in 2022 with not less than 45 retail outlets nationwide.
Speaking to the media, he revealed that he had a number of calls asking him why the first consignment of the oil could not reflect in prices at the pumps.
“Now what happened was that of course the 40,000 metric tons is not enough to cause a significant change in the prices. But even so, one of the highest buyers in the gold for oil product in the first consignment was Goil.
Goil’s prices were brought down to about 70 pesewas. Other OMC’s that also bought some consignment of gold for oil gave us a reduction of about 10-20 pesewas that is still not significant though,” he stated.
He continued “So, this time, NPA’s gold for oil team which is led by the deputy chief executive Fred Okudzeto, Sheila Addo, the policy coordinator and there is Abass Tashiti, they’ve come up with a brilliant idea with this second consignment of gold for oil that has come. We are going to sell to OMC’s with not less than 45 outlets. There are 150 oil marketing companies. If you are selling to all the 150 companies you will not realize the impact,” he concluded.
Why OMCs with 46
According to him, if selling to the people with the highest number of outlets, then the the programme impact will be felt across the country in terms of the price reduction.
He revealed that his outfit was monitoring to ensure that the oil is sold only to OMCs with the highest presence in terms of number and also the spread of outlets across the country. So that the effect is felt across the country.
Dr Hamid however said the NPA regulates G40 products prices on the interim (Ex-ref price and Ex-pump prices).
He stated that the Authority had intensified price monitoring activities with penalties for defaulting service providers.
Touching on activities undertaken to ensure product quality and integrity, the NPA Boss mentioned the supply of low sulphur fuels (cleaner fuels), a maximum of 50ppm for imports and a maximum of 1500ppm for domestic production.
The NPA also undertakes periodic petroleum product monitoring exercises, conducts fuel marker monitoring and quality monitoring of fuel standards (Quality Control).