Fifty per cent of businesses operating in the petroleum downstream industry in the country are wholly Ghanaian owned.
That, according to the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), signified the Ghanaian success story of local content in the petroleum downstream industry.
The Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Mr Moses Asaga, made this known when he addressed final-year students of the School of Business of the University of Cape Coast.
The lecture, which focused on developments in the petroleum downstream industry, prospects and challenges, was organised at the instance of the university to boost the understanding of the students. .
According to Mr Asaga, there were presently more than 3,000 petroleum retail outlets, 82 oil marketing companies (OMCs), 42 LPG marketing companies, 545 transporters with more than 2,500 bulk road vehicles (BRVs), 24 bulk distribution companies (BDCs) and two oil trading companies (OTCs) in the petroleum downstream.
“Ghanaian ownership of these petroleum service providers (PSPs) is 50 per cent and that is a positive outcome of the deregulation process which is ongoing in the petroleum downstream industry,” he stated.
Mr Asaga said last year, 3.3 million tonnes of petroleum products were consumed in Ghana due to increased economic activities, pointing out that as the economy continued to grow, that consumption pattern would increase.
Explaining further, he said the rapid growth and expansion in the downstream industry called for increased monitoring and enforcement of regulatory standards.
“Until recently, more than 30 per cent of the fuel consumed in Ghana was adulterated, thereby compromising the quality fuel the consumer needed. But with the introduction of a novel programme called the petroleum product marking scheme, adulteration has been reduced to one per cent,” he added.
Touching on the deregulation process, Mr Asaga said the process had made a great impact on the industry and the economy.
He, however, pointed out that more needed to be done to boost the infrastructural needs of the industry to meet the increasing demand for petroleum products.
Source: Graphic Online
