The Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies (COMAC) is pressing for the elimination of dormant licences as part of urgent reforms to streamline Ghana’s downstream petroleum sector.

This follows what it describes as widespread over-licensing in 2025.

COMAC’s Industry Report shows the market expanded to over 229 Oil Marketing Companies and LPG Marketing Companies during the year, creating an oversaturated environment that intensified price wars and unsustainable undercutting among players.

The situation was further compounded by the presence of about 57 non-operational firms that retained active licences despite failing to consistently lift petroleum products.

In view of this, COMAC contended that the current licensing framework is inadequate and must be urgently reviewed.

To restore stability, COMAC is pushing for a comprehensive overhaul of the licensing framework, including stricter governance, capital and operational thresholds for new and existing entrants.

Consequently it advocates an aggressive merger and consolidation strategy to restructure petroleum service providers (PSPs) that fall short of revised standards, with the aim of improving resilience, efficiency and long-term sustainability within the downstream market.

“Review and restructure the licensing framework to raise the entry threshold (governance, operational and capital requirement) and eliminate dormant licences. Consequently, a comprehensive merger and consolidation framework should be aggressively implemented to streamline the sector by restructuring PSPs that do not meet the requirements,” part of the report read.