The price of fuel will remain stable for the second pricing window, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) has said.
It said in its latest notice signed by Research Analyst Fritz Moses that the price of fuel on the local market remained largely stable within the window under review.
IES said the price of petroleum products within the second pricing window of March 2021 saw the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) maintain prices at the pump throughout the period.
The current national average price of fuel per litre at the pump is pegged at GHS5.16 for both products.
For this pricing window, Zen Petroleum, Benab Oil, Petrosol and Frimps Oil sold the least-priced fuel on the local market, according to IES’ market scan.
It said for the window under assessment, the price of international benchmark Brent crude averaged $65.22 per barrel mark representing a 2.19% decrease from the previous window’s average price of $66.65 per barrel mark.
The Brent crude price decrease is coming on the back of the third wave of coronavirus infections, which has forced several European states like France, Poland, Italy, Germany and others to introduce new restrictions on movements in subsequent weeks.
The restrictions are expected to reduce crude oil demand.
On 24 March 2021, however, the price of Brent crude went up by 5.5% due to the unfortunate mishap in the Suez Canal.
The canal is a major transportation route for global trade that connects Asia to the Middle East.
The mishap blocked the delivery of about 13 million barrels of crude according to Vortexa.
The situation is expected to cause a short-term delay in crude oil imports in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world.
The prices were back again to the downward trajectory on 25 March 2021, trading downward by 3.85% in response to the restrictions in Europe.
In preparation for the next OPEC+ meeting, traders still remain on edge for the resolutions from the meeting scheduled for 1 April 2021.
Gasoline and gasoil prices, as monitored on Standard and Poor’s global Platts platform show that the price of international commodities gasoline and gasoil experienced marginal decreases within the period.
Gasoline saw a decrease in price by 2.07% to close the window at $608.73 per metric tonne from an earlier $621.64 per metric tonne.
Gasoil price also decreased by 3.56% to close trading at $513.35 per metric tonne from $532.33 per metric tonne at the end of the first pricing window of March 2021.
On the local forex, IES said data collated by its economic desk from the foreign exchange (forex) market show the cedi maintained its stability against the U.S. dollar still trading at GHS5.73 to the US dollar.
Due to factors including the 2.05% decrease in the price of international benchmark Brent crude, the 2.84% decrease in the price of gasoil, the 1.89% decrease in gasoline price and the relative stability of the local currency against the US dollar; IES projects the price of fuel on the domestic market at the various pumps to remain the same “as we continue into April 2021”.
Source: Mynewsghana
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