Some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have begun cutting prices of petroleum products at the pumps.

This follows the expected reduction in petroleum products (diesel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas).

A leading OMC, GOIL, is selling a litre of diesel and petrol at¢ 12.30, from their previous prices of ¢12.45 respectively.

The adjustment is attributed to the marginal gain of the cedi in the past two weeks. Prices of finished petroleum products, however, have not witnessed any significant changes in the past two weeks.

Going forward, consumers will be looking forward to the margin of reduction by the over 100 OMCs in the country during the week.

The Institute for Energy Securities on June 30, 2023, projected that the prices of diesel and LPG are expected to fall marginally in the first two weeks of July 2023.

According to the IES, this is due to the various changes in the price of the commodities on the international fuel market which will reflect positively in the local market.

However, the price of petrol is expected to remain unchanged.

This is because the international petrol price increase and the Ghana cedi depreciation are insignificant to cause a price increase in the first two weeks of July.

World oil market

The month of June 2023 ended with crude oil prices still trading far below analyst projections at the beginning of year 2023.

IES said several factors played against the commodity performance in the first half of 2023, ranging from global slowed demand due to China’s COVID-19 restrictions to the U.S.A and banking crisis.

Again, supply decisions by leading oil producers through OPEC+ decisions as a body and individual member decisions of production cuts have still not helped the price of crude oil to recover the slump. At close of the trading day on June 30m 2023, Brent Crude price closed at $74.90 per barrel and a 2-week average of $74.85.