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COVID-19: Help BOST to store more oil reserves – COPEC tells Gov’t

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Ghana, (COPEC) has called on government to support the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) to store more oil reserves.

COVID-19: Help BOST to store more oil reserves – COPEC tells Gov’t

This, COPEC said, has become necessary due to the reported unavailability of storage space across the US market.

The price of US oil has turned negative, with the demand for oil having also dried due to lockdowns across the world over the COVID-19 pandemic.

The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US oil, has fallen as low as minus $37.63 a barrel.

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A statement signed by the Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah, urged government to get “an open credit system in place immediately to stock oil at this point for the country’s strategic reserves or stocking needs.”

It added that “government should also consider getting our local refinery back to productivity in order to process Ghana’s oil locally as we understand some of our producers or Oil fields may be soon forced to shut down production due to lack of storage space globally.”

The statement said Ghana could lose on both the upstream and downstream ends if government fails to assist BOST to store more oil reserves.

This, the Chamber explained, could be caused by the low prices being recorded on the international market currently.

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Meanwhile, COPEC also highlighted that it is unlikely that fuel prices will be reduced at the pumps in Ghana despite the drastic reduction in oil prices.

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