A rule that requires all imported diesel into Ghana to  have a minimum sulphur content of not more than 50 million parts per million goes into effect on Saturday, barring no last minute changes.

This follows the implementation of the new regulation by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to further reduce sulphur specification for diesel from 500ppm to 50pm or lower, which it says will ensure the health of the general public is not put at risk.

A study by the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) and the Swiss NGO, Public Eye in 2016 revealed that Ghanaian consumers were at a high risk of fuel contamination as the diesel products in use contained excess sulphur content than specified internationally.

Public Eye had criticized Swiss firms for their links to the trade of diesel in Africa that contain high Sulphur considered illegal in Europe.

The NPA in October reviewed its sulphur specification content to 3000 to 500 and eventually to 50 million parts per million to start from 1st January 2017,a move  the chamber of petroleum consumers, COPEC has described as "satisfactory."

Meanwhile the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has a three-year grace period to reconfigure its equipment to attain the 50 million parts per million mark set in the draft national standard.

By Fiifi Abdul Malik