Ghana Assures Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery Will Transform Downstream Sector

The chief executive officer, National Petroleum Authority (NPA) of Ghana, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, said the coming onstream of 650,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Dangote Petroleum Refinery will transform the Ghanaian downstream sector through the reduction in the cost of importation of petroleum products into Ghana.

Speaking at the 16th Oil Trading and Logistics Expo in Lagos with the theme: ‘Regulating Downstream Energy Transition in Dynamic Times’, Abdul-Hamid said, the completion of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery project would be a breakthrough for the West African region which has for a long time depended on importation of petroleum products.

According to him, 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 for petroleum products importation, would help his country stem the tide of a continuous increase in the price of fuel.

He stated that, “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.”

Abdul-Hamid said the Ghanaian government was also developing a 60-billion-dollar petroleum hub project on 20,000 acres in the western part of the country for storage and marine facilities.

The permanent secretary, ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria, Gabriel Aduda said deregulation would increase transparency in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, saying full deregulation would also create healthy competition among investors.

Aduda, who was represented by the deputy director of Downstream Department, Federal ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Augustine Okwudiafor, noted that, deregulation would give business guarantees to potential investors at the stage of conceptualisation.

According to him, deregulation would significantly reduce, if not eradicate completely, the diversion and smuggling of petroleum products across Nigerian borders.

He further said, data was key in the Oil and Gas Industry, and that any reliable and accurate data would give investors a certain level of assurance, saying, “hence, the government is keen and determined to harmonise all downstream data across the relevant agencies and parastatals to eradicate data variations

“The government, through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, its agencies, and the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, is considering enhanced technologies. They include Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor and gather downstream data for effective policy formulation and investment guidance.”