To lessen the nation’s dependency on more expensive imports from Europe, the Ghana National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has declared plans to look into purchasing petroleum products from the recently opened Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Nigeria.
At the OTL Africa Downstream Oil Conference in Lagos on Monday, NPA Chairman Mustapha Abdul-Hamid revealed the possible change.
With a production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd), the Dangote Refinery officially started refining crude oil on September 3. It started in January by producing aviation fuel and diesel.
Abdul-Hamid clarified that Ghana might drastically lower its $400 million monthly expense on imports from Europe once the refinery is operating at full capacity.
“If the refinery reaches 650,000 bpd, all that volume cannot be consumed by Nigeria alone. So instead of us importing from Rotterdam, it will be much easier for us to import from Nigeria, and I believe that will bring down our prices,” Abdul-Hamid noted.
He went on to say that importing from Nigeria will also result in decreased freight costs, which would have a favourable effect on Ghanaian prices for other goods and services.
To stabilise the region’s trade and currency demands, Abdul-Hamid went on to say that a single African currency might further lessen dependency on the US dollar.
If the value of the Ghanaian cedi relative to the dollar holds steady, the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs) in Ghana had earlier predicted a modest drop in the cost of petrol and diesel by the middle of September.
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