Fuel prices to increase marginally – IES

The Institute of Energy Security (IES) has said prices of fuel will appreciate marginally at the pumps.

A statement issued by IES indicated that the price of fuel on the local market increased within the window under review.

Within the first pricing window of June 2021, majority of the oil marketing companies (OMCs) increased their prices of petroleum products by 3% at the pump.

Based on this increase, the current national average price of fuel per litre at the pump is pegged at GHS5.97 for both gasoline and gasoil.

For this pricing window, Zen Petroleum, Benab Oil, Cash Oil, Goodness Oil, Top Oil and Frimps Oil sold the least-priced fuel on the local market, according to IES’ market scan.

For the window under assessment, international benchmark Brent crude price averaged $73.98 per barrel, representing a 4.05% increase from the previous window’s average price of $71.10 per barrel.

This window’s increase in price has been largely in response to the rise in COVID-19 cases propelled by the Delta variant in parts of Europe and amid warnings of a dense outbreak in the United States.

For the first time in two years, the price of Brent reached the $75-mark at the end of the pricing window.

The global crude demand is rebounding as the summer driving season begins and economies reopen from restrictions in mobility.

This is particularly the case, as road and airline travel continue to increase.

The increase in Brent crude prices has also been attributed to the tightening of the physical crude supply in parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, as a result of the dynamics in spread between the regional benchmarks within the period.

The July 1st OPEC+ meeting to decide on the production policy for August is also expected to offset the markets, as we go into the month of July.

Gasoline and gasoil prices, as monitored on Standard and Poor’s global Platts platform, show that the prices of international commodities gasoline (petrol) and gasoil (diesel) experienced marginal differences within the period.

Gasoline saw an increase in price by 3.47% to close the window at $694.78 per metric tonne from an earlier $671.45 per metric tonne in the previous window.

Gasoil price also increased by 3.53% to close trading at $597.30 per metric tonne from the earlier window’s price of $576.89 per metric tonne.

Data collated by IES’ Economic Desk from the Foreign Exchange (Forex) market shows the cedi maintained its stability, still trading at GH¢5.77 to the US dollar.

Source: Classfmonline.com