The Communications Manager of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Kudus Mohammed, says Ghana currently has a one month supply of crude oil in storage capacity.

According to him, this is to ensure that petroleum is available and available regularly despite the low supply of petroleum the world over as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war.

“We’re able to guarantee a regular supply of the product out there and that is why when you take your machine to any of the pumps across the country you would actually be guaranteed of the product to be able to buy,” he said on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition.

He noted that even though the one month supply in storage capacity is not an ideal amount, the Planning Department of the NPA “would not want to have a glut where we would have so much of the product in the system that could also have its implications on pricing.”

“But we have capacities at every given point in time that you don’t have to grant permission to an unnecessary number of vessels that might bring the product that you might be finding it difficult as to where to put them.

“So I’m saying that there is a certain regular time table that actually guarantees who brings what at what time, and the Planning Department is able to gauge at what time what is the need of the consuming public, what is available across the country and who should be granted the permission,” he explained.

Kudus Mohammed further noted that the scarcity of some petroleum products on the market is also one of the reasons why the NPA is unable to store more than the one month supply it currently has.

“We all know that there are some bottlenecks in regards to supply of these products. Diesel particularly is becoming a very scarce commodity out there in the market. So in as much as you would probably have a standard that you’d wish to meet, what is of primary importance is the access of it and the regularity of which is supposed to be available to the consuming public as and when they would want it,” he said.

Meanwhile, he says the Bank of Ghana’s inability to pump more dollars into the system is also accounting for the inability to get more petroleum products into the country.

“I’ve heard a lot of the BDCs for example complaining of access first of all to forex and a competitive rate for that matter because whatever it is they will certainly be passing on if there is any excess they will be needing to pass to the consumer. They’re not able to get as much of the forex as they desire. The quantity ordinarily they would have wished to bring into the country will certainly suffer.

“And we’ve heard their complaints for example of how they’re not able to get all of what they need from the Bank of Ghana, equally they’re not able to get what they need from their respective commercial banks and aboviously it will affect the quantity that they will be wishing to bring into the country. So it is a combination, but probably a lot more tilting to the availability of forex,” he said.