“Ghana’s fuel sector at the mercy of global market” – IES Executive Director

The Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES), Nana Amoasi VIII, has expressed deep concern over Ghana’s heavy dependence on fuel imports, stating that the country’s fuel sector remains vulnerable to fluctuations in the international market.

According to him, Ghana imports over 98% of its fuel due to the non-functionality of key refineries, leaving the nation at the mercy of global price trends.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on last Tuesday, March 18, 2025, he explained that international market dynamics play a major role in determining local fuel prices.

“”Events on the world market is a building wall for our domestic market in terms of price, and so if the world market price falls, then of course there’s a likelihood that domestic fuel price will equally fall. 

According to Nana Amoasi VIII, Ghana’s reliance on fuel imports is primarily due to the failure of its refineries. He noted that most refineries, including the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and Sentuo Refinery, remain non-operational, leaving Ghana dependent on small-scale “teapot” refineries like Akwaaba and Platon, which produce less than 1,000 metric tons per day.

“There are probably three or four key variables that we’ll look at when we want to predict or probably foretell the price of fuel on our own domestic market as the international price of these fuels because we are largely exposed to this event, because we import at the country largely, our refineries are not working except for the teapot refineries like Akwaaba and Platon, which does less than probably 1,000 metric tons per day, Tema Oil Refinery is not working, Sentuo Refinery is not working, so we import almost more than 98 % of our fuel, and so whatever happens on the world market hits us here.” He said

Nana Amoasi VIII revealed that another critical factor is the exchange rate between the Ghanaian cedi and the US dollar, warning that the depreciation of the local currency further worsens the situation.

“Also, you know we import in dollars because the fuel we buy is in dollars, the crude oil we buy is equally in dollars, but we sell in cedis. If the importing currency, the dollar, is behaving stronger than our own local currency at which we sell our fuel and products to exchanges for the dollar and go and buy the next consignment, if that’s happening, then of course we are also losing at that end.” He stated

The energy expert called for urgent measures to revive Ghana’s refining capacity to mitigate the impact of global market fluctuations on domestic fuel prices.

Source: Elvisanokyenews.net