Some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) started reducing prices of petroleum products at the pumps from today, March 16, 2023.
A leading OMC, GOIL is selling a litre of petrol for ¢12.95 from the previous ¢13.92 and diesel for ¢13.49 from the previous ¢13.25.
TotalEnergies has also cut prices of petroleum products at the pumps, selling a litre of petrol at ¢12.95 and diesel for ¢13.49 litre.
Based on the decline of the products, diesel has fallen by 2.29% per litre, whilst petrol has gone down by about 6.56%. The reduction is in line with the two weeks review of prices of petroleum products.
The Institute for Energy Security (IES) on March 14, 2023, projected that fuel prices will fall between 3% and 10% at the pumps.
IES predicted that the prices of all three key petroleum products – petrol, diesel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) – were expected to fall.
The IES said, “the last two weeks have seen price indicators on both the domestic and international fronts falling and this can translate into some price reductions at the pumps for various petroleum products”.
The domestic fuel market prices are projected to fall between ¢12.60 for petrol, ¢13.40 for diesel and ¢14 per Kilogramme for LPG.
Some industry players have attributed the reduction to the stability of the cedi and a fall in the price of the commodity on the world market.
The international crude oil benchmark Brent fell to about $83.87 from about $84.14 per barrel over the last two weeks. This represented a marginal drop in the average prices in the window under review.
The commodity which traded at about $86 per barrel in the mid of the window declined to as low as $79 per barrel at the start of Tuesday, March 14, 2023.
The first pricing window for March 2023 offered some respite to petroleum product consumers on the domestic market.
Prices of petrol and diesel dropped significantly, allowing domestic consumers to enjoy some relief.
The IES monitoring of various Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for the pricing window under review found the national average price for petrol and diesel as ¢13.53 and ¢13.69 respectively.