Energy consultant Senyo Hosi has added his voice to calls for the elimination of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) margin from Ghana’s petroleum price build-up, arguing that a company now operating as a fully commercial entity should not continue to receive guaranteed levy income from consumers at the pump.
Speaking on Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, April 18, Hosi said BOST charges commercial rates for the use of its petroleum storage tanks just as private operators do, and that this commercial footing removes the justification for continued subvention through the margin embedded in fuel prices.
“I believe BOST margin should be scrapped. We have policies that force people to use their tanks. BOST charges commercial rates like everybody does for their services. So if they are running commercially, there is no reason to be subventing them too much,” he said.
Hosi nonetheless struck a measured tone on the government’s overall handling of the fuel price surge triggered by the Middle East conflict, describing the intervention as prudent. He did, however, urge the government to invest more effort in explaining to Ghanaians how the petroleum sector works, arguing that without that context, people struggle to appreciate both the scale of the problem and the decisions being made.
His call on the BOST margin adds to an existing and sharply divided debate among energy sector actors. The Centre for Environmental Management and Sustainable Energy (CEMSE) has argued that the BOST margin, which quadrupled from three pesewas per litre in 2020 to twelve pesewas per litre as of August 2025, generating over GH¢424 million annually for the company, has become an unjustifiable charge on consumers in a market where private players already control about 80 percent of storage and transport capacity.
The Institute for Energy Security (IES), however, has pushed back against abolishing the margin, warning that it remains a critical mechanism for financing petroleum infrastructure development and maintaining strategic fuel reserves, and that removing it could undermine supply security at a time when global crude markets remain severely disrupted.
The government announced on April 15 that it would absorb GH¢2.00 per litre on diesel and GH¢0.36 per litre on petrol from the April 16 pricing window, a Cabinet-approved one-month relief measure estimated to cost the state at least GH¢200 million in foregone revenue per window.
