'Publish OMCs' annual profits to inform fuel pricing debate' — StarOil CEO urges NPA

The Chief Executive Officer of StarOil Ghana, Kwame Tieku, has called on the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to publish the annual net profit shares of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).

He argued that the data would provide a clearer picture of the industry's financial health and inform fuel pricing policies.

According to him, making profitability data publicly available alongside existing information on market share and sales volumes would enable policymakers and consumers to better assess whether calls to maintain the fuel price floor are justified.

"I will highly recommend to the NPA that in addition to publishing data on OMC volumes and market share, they should also publish each OMC's share of total annual industry net profits. That should provide a data-based context for industry health analysis!" he wrote in a social media post on Friday, August 7.

The StarOil CEO argued that some fuel marketing companies seek to pass the cost of operational inefficiencies onto consumers through higher fuel prices rather than improving efficiency.

"Some OMCs just want the customer to pay for their inefficiencies... If an OMC charges high prices and yet has very poor percentage of industry profitability, it is most certainly an inefficient player.

"If, on the other hand, OMCs with low prices are more profitable than OMCs with high prices on the whole, that should provide policymakers with better insights into price policy formulation," he stated.

Mr. Tieku emphasized that greater transparency in industry profitability would promote evidence-based policymaking and contribute to a more informed national conversation on fuel pricing and competition in the petroleum sector.