Gold for oil policy: More oil shipment expected in the coming days -BoG

The Director of Financial Market at the Bank of Ghana, Stephen Opata has disclosed that the central bank has more gold for another oil shipment this February.

He said the central bank had so far bought 50,945 ounces of gold which translates into US$96.6 million dollars.

“For the first oil shipment, we paid US$40.6 million so we still have some balance there. We are expecting to buy another 20,000 ounces of gold this week and this should yield us about US$38.4 million.

“So the expected balance in the account should be around US$94.3 million so we have enough for another shipment and that is what we are working on,” he said in an interview after the MPC press conference on January 30.

He said the gold purchase arrangement was picking up and the country was expecting more shipments in February.

Background

In December last year, Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia announced that Ghana had concluded talks for the operationalization of the gold-for-oil policy.

He indicated that under the deal, which was similar to barter, Ghana would receive cheaper fuel in exchange for gold.

The first consignment under the new policy arrived at the Tema Port last week and was discharged into the receptacles of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST).

Valued at $40 million, it was brokered by the Economic Management Team led by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

The 41,000 metric tonnes of petroleum products were delivered by SCF YENISEI.