Abdul Kudus Mohammed, the National Petroleum Authority’s (NPA) communications director, revealed that Ghana cannot meet its consumer demand for oil, which results in high prices for petroleum goods.

He claims that the effects of the global pricing unit on Ghana’s refined products are not as minor as they seem and are actually more difficult to explain.

The NPA Communications Director noted that other items come with crude in an interview on the Happy Morning Show, although most businesses only choose certain products like diesel or gasoline.

He emphasized once more that while diesel and petroleum products have different pricing units, the price of crude products is standardized.

“The issue of fuel pricing isn’t that straightforward. When crude prices go up or down, then the same implication should be in Ghana. But it’s not a straightforward implication like we expect. Crude is not the only thing we buy and in fact, because our refined rate is not working or the capacity does not meet the level to which they can meet the consumer needs of the Ghanaian public, most people do not buy crude.

“Some of the BDCs only buy petrol, others also buy only diesel, so it’s the refined products and not just crude and their pricing dynamics are different. For crude, it’s standardized but for petrol and diesel the dynamics are different,” he told Raymond Nyamador.

Meanwhile, the Unified Petroleum Price Fund (UPPF) margin on gasoline prices has been reinstated, according to the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).

It was noted that this was required to ensure that the country’s retail outlets could still carry petroleum products without being hampered.

The Authority added that if it had not taken action, the market’s supply of petroleum products may have suffered significantly.

The margin on gasoline and diesel will now each grow to 29 pesewas with the reintroduction of the UPPF. However, the price of gasoline has increased despite expectations that it would decrease by over 8%.