Petrol, diesel, LPG prices to go up till end of February – IES, COPEC predict

The Institute for Energy Security (IES) and the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) have projected increment in prices of petrol, diesel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the next two weeks.

The IES has forecasted prices of petrol, diesel and LPG to go up between three to seven per cent by the end of February.

This is contained in the Institutes' Review of the February 2024 First Pricing Window, shared with the Ghana News Agency.

COPEC, on the other hand, has projected prices of petrol to increase by 6.63 per cent to sell between GHS12.02 per litre and GHS13.29 per litre while diesel is expected to increase by 8.18 per cent to sell at GHS14.60 per litre.

The Chamber also projected LPG to sell between GHS12.58 per kg and GHS13.90 per kg.

Petrol and diesel are currently trading at a national average price of GHS 11.93 and 12.88 respectively whiles LPG is pegged at GHS 12.07 per kilogram.

The IES and COPEC attributed the expected increment on depreciation of the Cedi against the Dollar and a jump in prices of refined petroleum products on the international market.

Per the IES' Economic Desk Data Analysis, the Cedi depreciated by 2.11 per cent against the U.S. Dollar in the last two weeks.

On the refined fuels market, product prices have jumped by 1.62 per cent, 5.67 per cent, and 8.08 per cent for petrol, diesel and LPG respectively, the IES gathered.

Data compiled by Oilprice.com, a platform dedicated to monitoring oil prices, found that Brent crude performance has been slow over the past two weeks, with the bi-weekly average price per barrel standing at $75.32.

The Global Standard & Poor (S&P) Platts platform tracking of refined petroleum price data published that petrol, in the February 2024 First Pricing Window, started trade at $800.84 and closed at $814.05 per metric tonne.

Diesel closed trade at $855.70 compared to an opening price of $807.14 per metric tonne while LPG traded at $535.41 at start and ended at $582.50 per metric tonne.

COPEC appealed to the Government to desist from increasing taxes and margins on all petroleum products to help stabilise prices.

The Chamber also urged the Government to speed up processes to getting the Tema Oil Refinery back on stream to avoid or reduce the importation of finished products.

GNA