The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), has called on the government to consciously put in place pragmatic measures to store oil to save the country in a likely event of a potential fuel crisis.

In the view of COPEC, the recent rift between the USA and Iran could is a potential risk to oil supplies to countries such as Ghana and therefore proposed that 25 percent of oil produced in the country be reserved for domestic use to forestall any crisis.

Sharing his thoughts in an interview, the Executive Secretary of the COPEC, Mr Duncan Amoah, also said the government could control the prices of the commodity locally to save Ghanaians from paying extra should global market prices of crude oil escalate.

Mr Amoah said the time had come for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), to be retooled and equipped in order that a certain percentage of the oil produced locally go to the local refinery to be processed for the local market.

“Government must take immediate steps to retool TOR and ensure that 25 percent of the oil produced in Ghana are reserved for local use to save the country from the challenges it will be facing from the international market in the coming days,”Mr Amoah emphasised.

He added that Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Ltd (BOST) must also be given some amount of money to reserve some fuel  in trust for Ghanaians.

The COPEC Executive Secretary further suggested that the government took some hedging measures to avoid paying more for petroleum products in the next quarter.

Explaining the effect increased fuel prices could have on the Ghanaian economy, he said: “when fuel prices go up, the general impact affects jobs and industries as well as the general cost of living.”

Mr Amoah, however, gave the assurance that COPEC was doing its bit by working round the clock to ensure that the tension between Iran and the USA did not have any impact on the country.

Tensions between the USA and Iran have been rising since 2018 culminating in the recent killing of an Iranian military kinpin which shot the price of the international benchmark, Brent crude to 3.5 percent in the previous week.

That of the USA known as West Texas Intermediate also increased to about three percent.

Iran holds ten percent of the world’s proven oil reserves and 15 percent of its gas and it is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPECs) second-largest exporter and the world’s fourth-largest oil producer.

The USA is at the top of the list with 264 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves.

By:Mabel Faith Tannor