Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid says demand for petroleum products in the country has seen significant growth from an average of 7 to 41 percent in 2021.
According to him, the unprecedented surge in consumption is as result of various technological based schemes and interventions being implemented by the downstream regulator to curb illicit fuel activities over the past few months.
Dr. Abdul-Hamid said this at the official opening of the 5th Edition of the Ghana International Petroleum Conference (GhIPCon), in Accra on Wednesday, 28th September 2022,
The 3-day conference is on the theme “Energy Transition in the African Petroleum Downstream Context: Prospects, Challenges and the Way Forward”.
He mentioned that the sector currently has annual sales value of GHC32.94 billion representing a contribution of 7.2 percent to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Africa’s petroleum downstream sector is entering a new era. As the world looks to accelerate its transition away from fossil fuels, the pressures on our industries are mounting,” he said.
“We are all exposed to the global energy transition, as our countries depend on oil and gas revenues. Ghana’s petroleum downstream industry which has an annual sales value of about GHS32.94 billion according to 2021 estimates contributes 7.2% of the country’s GDP.”
“This represents a 41% increase in demand for fossil fuels as compared to 2020. This is an unprecedented surge in consumption of fossil fuels when the annual average over the years had been between 5% and 7%,” The NPA Chief Executive stated.
He emphasized that Ghana is committed to reducing the emissions from consumption of energy products.
“We at the National Petroleum Authority are committed to reducing the emissions from the energy products we consume in Ghana, and this culminated to the reduction of sulphur content in transport and industrial fuels from a maximum of 5000ppm to a maximum of 50ppm.”
“As previously mentioned, Ghana is one of the few African countries that consume low Sulphur fuels, with a roadmap for local refineries to comply,” he said.
Dr Abdul Hamid further charged participants at this year’s conference to deliberate on the key issues with a focus to devise strategies for deployment.
Speaking on behalf of the Energy Minister, a Deputy Minister of Energy, William Owuraku Aidoo, says Ghana remains committed to an energy transition agenda and the development of the petroleum industry.
“Ghana remains committed to both an energy transition agenda and the development of its petroleum industry, including downstream sector, we believe that the way forward is to strike an important and fair balance between the two without compromising our determination to maximize the benefits we need for our industrialization,” he said.
“I am convinced beyond measures that the conference will provide significant outcomes to guide us on the way forward, and I look forward to further engagements in this direction,” he added.
He further charged players in the West Africa Sub region to improve refinery capacity to produce high-quality fuels to reduce Green House Gas emissions.
The conference is being organized by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) in collaboration with the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy and the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD).
It has attracted major players including CEOs, experts and decision makers in the petroleum sector across the West Africa Sub Region.
Source: dailyguidenetwork.com
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Hahahaaaa, hear him in 2016, " Walahi we have to rescue this country ". Today i don't know what he will say it a question is put to him whether Ghana needs to be rescued considering the messy situation in which we find ourselves. If politics is all about Machiavelli thus ' do evil that good may come ' then politics is bad. Now every Ghanaian in the street is confused. When will this beautiful country get an honest president, honest appointees to prove to Ghanaians that we still have people who can bring about the desired change Ghanaians are yearning for considering our God given natural resources. We have gold, diamond, manganese, cocoa, timber, crude oil, gravel, sand both smooth and rough, a vibrant youthful population etc unfortunately no leader with a vision to turn all these around to enable the people live meaningful lives. 65 year old independent country still don't know what it's priorities are. Always looking for the least opportunity to go for loans to squander leaving huge debts for future generations without anything to show. Where you see a project also know the amount involved have been doubled to enable a few benefit. 30 million population with lesson than 1 million people in the public sector and yet we can't pay decent salaries and pension benefits. Ukraine and Russia are at war and yet still the Ukrainian national football team is seen playing matches in the international scene currently, meanwhile others are accusing them of being responsible for our self inflicted mess.