Why is the Government Deregulating the Petroleum Sector?
The deregulation of the petroleum sector was provided for in the 2004 Government Budget statement approved by Parliament of Ghana and it is being undertaken for a number of reasons: a) Introduce a system of competitive tendering for the procurement of crude oil and petroleum products into the country. b) Introduce a more transparent “import parity” based system for setting and adjusting ex-refinery prices for petroleum products. c) Promote competition in petroleum product marketing and retailing activities of the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), thereby providing scope for new entrants into the industry and the elimination of fixed ex-pump prices for all OMCs. d) Reduce the burden of petroleum subsidies on the budget. e) Consistent with its strategy of allowing the private sector to play a greater role in the allocation of resources in the economy, government has decided to open up the petroleum industry to private sector participation and competition. In this framework, TOR will compet
