GOIL, TotalEnergies and Shell which used to be the big players in Ghana’s downstream petroleum sector have been losing out on market share in the last few months, data from the National Petroleum Authority, (NPA) has shown.

According to the NPA, petrol and diesel sales of GOIL, TotalEnergies and Shell declined in August, 2024 compared to January, 2024.

The data shows that GOIL sold 56,281,500 litres for diesel and petrol in January but as at August, it was doing 52,886,500 litres representing a variance of about 6% decline.

TotalEnergies did 31,302,000 litres in January but as at August, it was doing 30,294,000 which reflects about 3% decline.

Lastly, Shell did 37,004,700 litres of petrol and diesel in August compared to 38,651,600 litres of same products in January representing about 4% decline.

Reacting to the revelation, Energy Analyst and Executive Director for the Center for Environmental Management and Sustainable Energy (CEMSE), Benjamin Nsiah said the three dealers must take a relook at their pricing strategies to offer competitive pricing that support the growth in retailing of petrol and diesel to avert.

“These companies should also relook the margins they offer their dealers in order to attract and retain the dealers”, he said.

The three companies are also reported to pay low salaries to their employees due to the low volumes and margins offered.

Mr. Nsiah charged the OMCs to offer at least 50% of the margin to the dealers otherwise the companies will lose most of them to outlets with better contracts.

“The 6% decline by GOIL, 3% decline by TotalEnergies and 4% decline by Shell imply that, revenues of dealers of each of the listed OMCs have declined respectively although their costs structures remain constant or seen an upsurge. These constant costs include compensations including SSNIT, Cost on credits (Interests payments), Utility Bills, Sanitation and Hygiene bills, and localized payments to their operational districts.

A comparative analysis of the data published by the NPA shows that, dealers who work with GOIL made revenues ranging from GH₵23,000 to GH₵38,000 in January depending on their dealers’ margins but in August they declined with new revenues ranging from GH₵21,000 and GH₵36,000. Also, Shell dealers were making revenues ranging from GH₵28,000 to GH₵60,000 in January but in August, revenues declined from GH₵26,000 to GH₵27,000 and Dealers working with TOTAL Energy had revenues ranging from GH₵20,000 to GH₵35,000 in January but in August, revenues declined to GH₵18,000 to GH₵32,000” he stressed.

An observational inquiry by CEMSE among some dealers revealed that, dealers are unable to recover cost because of lower dealers’ margins as well as recently low sales being observed in the market.