NPP government was wrong in allowing establishment of Sentuo Refinery – COPEC

The Head of Pricing, Monitoring and Research at the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Sampson Addae, says the decision by the Akufo-Addo government to allow the establishment of Chinese-owned Sentuo Refinery was wrong.

According to him, allowing the setting up of Sentuo Refinery at a time when state-owned Tema Oil Refinery is struggling makes no economic sense.

His comments come in the wake of the recent increase in fuel prices. This recent spike in fuel prices marks the highest increase since February 2023, when a litre of fuel sold for GH¢15.40 and GH¢15.50 for diesel.

In a directive dated April 3, 2024, and distributed to various stakeholders within the oil marketing and distribution sector, the NPA instructed the application of additional charges: 16 pesewas per litre for Petrol, 14 pesewas per litre for Diesel, and 14 pesewas for every kilogram of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

Consequently, the state-owned Oil Marketing Company, GOIL, has adjusted its prices, with petrol and diesel now retailing at GH¢14.15 per litre and GH¢14.74 per litre, respectively. GOIL implemented these adjustments effective April 4, 2024.

Speaking to Daakyehene Ofosu Agyemang on the New York-based Adinkra Radio Morning show on Friday, Sampson Addae blamed the increase in fuel prices partly on the non-operationalization of TOR for the past eight years.

“We could have had relatively cheaper fuel prices if we were refining our own fuel at TOR. It was wrong to have allowed the establishment of a private oil refinery in Ghana when we as a country have supervised the collapse of TOR. This is because no Ghanaian can go to China and set up a refinery there. Because what this does is that it brings competition. We know that Burkina Faso refines its oil here in Ghana and TOR makes some revenue. Now that we’ve allowed Sentuo refinery, they will give competition to TOR if it were working by beating down prices thereby denying the country the full amount it would have made from refining oil for other neighbouring countries. The money the Chinese will get will be taken out of the country thereby weakening the Cedi.

“If TOR were to be working, we would have gotten a lot of by-products from refining oil. We would have had bitumen to fix our bad roads across the country. Now that TOR is not working, if we have need bitumen as a state, it will be sold to us by Sentuo Refinery, they will sell other by-products including plastic materials to us, dirty oil and other products for industries will be sold to us. If TOR were operating, there will be more jobs and we’ll have increase in GDP,” Sampson Addae stated.