Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COMAC, Dr Riverson Oppong
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) should scrap the zonalisation policy it is implementing to allow oil marketing companies to directly distribute fuel to their stations across the country, the Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies (COMAC) has suggested.
The zonalisation policy means that an oil marketing company cannot lift fuel at a depot at Tema and distribute it to a fuel station in Takoradi, the fuel has to be lifted from a depot in Takoradi and same distributed to fuel stations in the catchment areas of the city.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COMAC, Dr, Riverson Oppong, who stated this in an interview with journalists in Accra after the end of the Downstream Dialogue 2025 programme, said the zonalisation policy had outlived its usefulness and it was time it was scrapped.
The two-day programme, organised by COMAC was on the theme: ‘Ghana’s Downstream Oil and Gas Sector: Challenges and Opportunities,’ brought together key stakeholders in the downstream petroleum sector to discuss pertinent issues, share insights, and develop actionable strategies for industry growth and sustainability.
Dr. Oppong indicated that COMAC and other sector players would work together to advocate the cancellation of the zonalisation policy.
“Zonalisation came temporarily to solve a problem. Today, that problem I would say is solved and we should go back to the drawing board and look at the zonalisation policy again. I think the time is far due. Because I don’t see the economics whereby Bulk Road Vehicles (BRVs) would lift a product from Tema, bypass Konongo to Kumasi, and another BRV would go to Kumasi and bring that same fuel back to Konongo,” Dr. Oppong stated.
Again, he said the zonalisation policy did not “Make any economic sense,” and it made fuel more expensive in the country.
Dr. Oppong noted that the cancellation of the zonalisation would help reduce the price of fuel and help the oil marketing companies to charge unified prices for fuel across the fuel station in the country.
Also, he mentioned that it would also help address fuel shortages in some parts of the country.
Additionally, the CEO of COMAC alleged that the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport Company continued to charge Primary Distribution Margin (PDM) on the pump price of fuel, whether it lifted depot-to-depot fuel or not.
“If we take that margin off, it would bring fuel prices down,” he noted.
The CEO of COMAC further said the cancellation of the zonalisation policy would address the current challenge where some of the Bulk Distribution Companies complain of losses of their stocks with BOST.
Moreover, Dr. Oppong called for a change in the current arrangement in which fuel was transported by road.
“I am looking at an industry where we have a pipeline that could transport petroleum products from Ghana to Burkina, instead of using the BRVs,” he stated.
Turning his focus on the programme, Dr. Oppong said the dialogue discussed the challenges that affected the downstream petroleum sector and strategies to address them.