The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has predicted that a gallon of petrol will now sell at almost GHS24 starting Saturday, 1 June 2019.

“While it is IES’ expectation that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) could, once again, fully apply the element of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) to cushion consumers for the upcoming window as occurred in the previous pricing-window, we nevertheless foresee the likelihood of fuel prices inching more closely toward GHS24 per gallon,” IES said in a statement containing their review for the last pricing window of the second half of May and their projections for the first pricing window in June.

The energy think tank stated in the release signed by its Research Analyst, Mikdad Mohammed that the reason for the price hikes is “the combination of rising international market prices and a marginal depreciation of the cedi against the dollar”.

IES further advised the Ghanaian public to take note of fuel filling stations’ price boards before making purchases as some are priced far below the national average price due to the de-regulation policy.

IES explained that pump prices for the second pricing window for May 2019 remained unchanged.

As a result, average prices of gasoline and gasoil at the pump continued to sell at GHS5.21 and GHS5.18, respectively.

“The stable fuel price Ghanaians experienced at the pump is not only attributable to the stability of the local cedi against the dollar, but also because the National Petroleum Authority fully forfeited the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PRSL) mechanism in the Petroleum Price Build-Up (PBU) to further cushion the market”.

IES’ Market-scan shows oil marketing companies (OMCs) Benab Oil, Pacific Oil, Frimps Oil, Compass Oil and Goodness Oil sell the least-priced fuel (GHS5 per litre) on the market while Shell, GOIL and Total sell the highest-priced fuel (GHS5.25 per litre) relative to other OMCs.