By: Seraphine Nyuiemedi
The Head of Control at the Quality Assurance Directorate, of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Ubeidalah Saeed Kutia says the Authority is committed to ensuring that petroleum products in the country are of high quality for consumers.
He said the NPA will continue to deploy its quality control measures and marking schemes to reduce adulteration and dilution of petroleum products.
Speaking at a media forum organized by the NPA in Ho for Journalists, in the Volta Region, Mr. Kutia said the move is to ensure that Ghana maintains its petroleum products which are of highest standard.
The forum was to equip media practitioners in the Volta Region with the requisite knowledge on petroleum pricing formula and quality to enable them to provide informative reportage.
Some of the topics looked at included, fuel marking, product and marker, petroleum price build-up, and price deregulation.
Head of Control at the Quality Assurance Directorate of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Ubeidalah Saeed Kutia said the average failure rates of petroleum products when it comes to specification is currently less than two percent annually.
Mr Kutia urged petroleum consumers to report issues of fuel adulteration within 48 hours for prompt investigations and redress.
Head of Economic Regulation at NPA, Ibrahim Abass Tasunti who took the participants through, pricing formula of petroleum products, said pricing of petroleum products is dependent on its demand and supply in the local and international markets.
He mentioned geopolitics, wars, political unrests, natural disasters, decisions taken by major oil producers to reduce production, increased mobility, pandemics, and strength of the US dollar as factors that affect the pricing of petroleum products.
Touching on the issue of Ghana as a producer of Crude oil, without its reflection on the price of petroleum products, Mr. Tasunti explained that, ”Ghana consumes more petroleum products than what it produces, hence the disparities”.
He said out of the 150,823 barrels of crude oil produced in the country daily, Ghana owns only 27,148 barrels representing 18 per cent.
