The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has appealed to the public not to panic over inaccurate reports of an imminent shortage of fuel and rush to pumps.
This follows a press release by the Institute of Energy Security (IES), which warned that the country could face severe fuel shortage as well as increase in prices of petroleum products in two weeks time.
But speaking to Citi Business News, the Public Relation Officer of the NPA, Yaro Kasambata was of the view that such inaccurate information could lead to panic buying and cause distortions that may result in shortages of fuel in some places.
“What we are actually asking the public not to do is panic buying, because if you start doing this type of speculations and start making people fear that there will be shortage of fuel, they will start panicking and buy more than they will normally buy. When that starts happening then it will dislodge your normal consumption pattern and then what you will have in the end is artificial shortage,” he lamented.
Mr. Kasambata assured that Ghana has enough stock with over 200 million litres of gas oil and more than 100 million litres of petrol at various depots throughout the country.
“These stocks are expected to last up to 6 weeks. Additionally, over 73 million litres of gas oil and 46 million litres of petrol are expected to be delivered into the country from the 13th to 18th February 2017,” he said.
He maintained that the NPA continuously monitors the weekly schedule of fuel imports to ensure that there is constant supply of fuel for the country.
“The Authority wishes to assure the general public that there are no challenges at the discharging terminals at the country’s ports and ensures that there is fairness in the process leading up to the discharge of cargoes of all importers,” he stressed.
“We therefore encourage the media and the general public to disregard any projections being put out in the public domain as merely speculative without any empirical basis,” he added.
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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana