The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has revised the national sulphur specification for diesel from 500ppm to 50pm or lower.
The reduction is expected to take effect from 1st January 2017.
The Tema Oil Refinery has been given a maximum of three years to reconfigure its equipment to meet the given standards of NPA.
Authorities say the further reduction will ensure the health of the general public is not put at risk.
Chief Executive of the NPA Moses Asaga explained that the reduction in parts per million (ppm) is in line with a road map that will see other countries in the ECOWAS sub-region reduce the sulphur content to 50ppm by 2020.
The NPA in October this year reduced the sulphur content from 3000ppm to 500ppm after a report by Public Eye criticized Swiss firms for their links to the trade of diesel in Africa that contain high Sulphur considered illegal in Europe.
Meanwhile the chamber of petroleum consumers, COPEC, has welcomed the development.
After several weeks of mounting pressure on NPA to revise the Sulphur content to 10ppm, Executive secretary of COPEC Duncan Amoah says the new content is satisfactory.
“We are a bit satisfied with the new directive by the NPA that 50 ppm should be the new standard going into 2017. We have had to fight for it but hearing this new level is satisfactorily,” he said.
According to him, “We believe that we should not stop here but navigate towards the lowest”.
COPEC has therefore put on hold its decision to use legal means to get a satisfactory ppm.
“Indeed we would have used every means possible to get the authorities do the right thing. We were going to push them through the law courts, but they have yielded already and so that will be suspended till the next meeting of the council of COPEC,” he clarified.
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