The Ghanaian administration has expressed strong belief that the country’s downstream sector will enjoy positive transformation when the 650,000 barrels per day a Dangote Refinery in Nigeria comes on board.
The chief executive officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) of Ghana, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, said with the Dangote Refinery next door, Ghana will enjoy reduction in the cost of importation of petroleum products into Ghana.
Abdul-Hamid, who spoke at the just concluded 16th Oil Trading and Logistics Expo in Lagos with the theme: “Regulating Downstream Energy Transition in Dynamic Times,” said the completion of the petroleum refinery project would be a breakthrough for the West African region, which has for a long time depended on importation of petroleum products.
He pointed out that Ghana is presently facing the challenge of continuous rise in the cost of petroleum products, adding that getting importers to turn their attention towards Nigeria, rather than going all the way to the Netherlands and elsewhere, is better for his country.
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The proximity the importers will enjoy from near-by Nigeria would help his country stem the tide of a continuous increase in the price of fuel.
“The Dangote Petroleum Refinery will have a huge impact on Ghana’s downstream sector. Right now, Ghana’s downstream industry is completely deregulated. There is no petrol subsidy in Ghana. For a deregulated market where the importers recover their costs fully, importing from Nigeria will certainly be more cost-effective and cheaper than importing from Rotterdam in the Netherlands where we get the bulk of our fuel in Ghana.
“As we all know, the price builds up for a liter of fuel will include the cost of shipment, transportation, insurance, and others, but if we are importing from Nigeria into Ghana, this will bring down the cost of fuel in our country. Ghanaians are very excited about the prospect of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery. Ghana had in the past built a good relationship where we get petroleum products from Nigeria at a reasonable and more affordable cost.
“I believe that the coming onstream of Dangote Petroleum Refinery will further strengthen the existing relationship between Nigeria and Ghana,” the Ghanaian official said
Also Read: Experts Hinge Nigeria’s Downstream Growth in 2022 on Dangote Refinery
Abdul-Hamid hinted that the Ghanaian government was also developing a $60billion petroleum hub project on 20,000 acres in the western part of the country for storage and marine facilities.
He explained that the projects will help accelerate the petroleum hub, consisting of refineries, and petrochemical development of the continent’s oil and gas resources, by connecting the downstream to the upstream.
“It will promote cleaner fossil fuels and biofuels as the pathway to a just energy transition. Gas has been accepted as the transition fuel because gas is the least carbon-emitting fossil fuel”, he added.
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