Oil Prices Drop
WITH CONTINUOUS reduction in the price of crude oil on the world market, analysts are anticipating a significant drop in the price of petroleum products with the expected announcement of new petroleum prices by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) this week.
Crude oil which is the world's most important commodity have tumbled from a record $100.09 a barrel and hovered around $91 yesterday on the U.S Mercantile Exchange, a situation which sends some positive signals that petroleum prices would go down when the NPA announces new petroleum prices by Saturday.
Normally, price of oil on the world market reflects the change in fuel prices after two or three weeks and since the price of crude went as low as $88 per barrel, analysts believe the price change should reflect the current market trend.
The drop in price is mainly due to the dollar which is regaining its strength against the major foreign currencies after declining for sometime.
The weaker dollar was also used to drive up oil prices by some investors since they were using the commodity as an alternative to holding the dollars.
Certain factors such as speculation of the commodity due to social circumstances also triggered the price hike in oil.
Prices of petrol and diesel were adjusted upward by the NPA some two weeks ago.
The review which was the second within the month of January saw petrol going up from GHp102.70 to GHp106.60 per litre and diesel from GHp101.90 to GHp104.00 per litre.
Kerosene which was formerly selling at GHp 92.50 per litre had also been increased to GHp 94.20, while the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) had been reduced from 105.28 per kilogramme to 101.60 per kilogramme.
But CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE sources at the NPA said there may be a significant drop of price of petroleum products when the authority meets this week to review the prices of the product.
The NPA in December decided to review prices of the petroleum products fortnightly because of the soaring oil prices until the price stabilizes on the world market.
By Felix Dela Klutse