Officials of GOIL displaying the differences between RON95 and RON91 to journalists
GOIL, YESTERDAY, commenced the sale of Researched Octane Number (RON95) a higher grade petrol across all its 400 fuel retail stations in Ghana.
The introduction of the higher grade petrol comes after the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC Ghana) encouraged Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to serve consumers with quality fuels.
This paves the way for GOIL to move away from the sale of RON91, which is a lower grade petroleum product.
It is expected that RON95 will benefit consumers immensely by boosting the performance of their engines.
COPEC is now in talks with other OMCs to follow the footstep of GOIL.
Octane Number is the standard measure of the performance of an engine or aviation fuel and it is believed that the higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before igniting.
Head of Fuels Marketing at GOIL, Marcus Deo Dake, addressing journalists at Burma Camp, Accra, on Monday, stated that customers would not be charged extra money for being served the RON95.
According to him, they will be paying the same amount they were paying for RON91.
For several years OMCs in Ghana have been marketing RON91, while western nations, especially those in Europe, have moved to RON95 and RON97.
Malaysia for instance, is among the several Asian nations that are using RON95 and RON97.
Duncan Amoah, Chief Executive Officer of COPEC Ghana, who inspected a number of GOIL stations on Monday in Accra to ensure that RON95 was actually being sold, said Octane 91 was weaker than 95.
He recounted that the standard for octane rate was set in the 1990s, and it was agreed that the country should do a minimum of RON91.
Mr. Amoah revealed that Ghanaian refineries were no longer putting as much fuel on the market as expected and that most products were imported from refineries across Europe.
Again, he said most cars in Ghana were post 2010 and highly sophisticated as compared to those in use in the 1990s.
That, he said, meant that Ghana could not continue to stick with the RON91.
BY Melvin Tarlue