By Macharia Kamau
The National Oil Corporation (Nock) has reduced the price of diesel across all retail outlets by Sh2.
The move follows an attempt by the State oil firm to increase sales as well as fulfil its mandate of stabilising the price of petroleum products.
With the discount, Nock outlets will now sell diesel at Sh105.30 in Nairobi down from the maximum price of Sh107.37 set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
In a statement, Nock said the prices for other towns have been adjusted. It said the new pricing took effect yesterday and will be in place until ERC issues its new price-capping guide on April 14.
Sumayya Hassan-Athmani, Nock chief executive said the reduction would partly help in reducing the cost of farm inputs as farmers embark on planting.
“The price reduction comes at an opportune time for farmers considering that this is the planting period in many parts of the country following the recent onset of the long rains season,” she said in the statement yesterday.
“The discounted prices are available to cash and SupaCard customer’s at all National Oil petrol stations countrywide.” The State-owned oil marketing firm has the mandate to stabilise fuel prices and ensure easy reach by all Kenyans.
It has, however, not fulfilled this mandate owing to capacity issues including a limited number of retail outlets, scarce resources for expansion and bulk importation of petroleum products compared to major oil marketers. The Corporation has a total of 102 service stations.
Market share
Statistics from the Petroleum Institute of East Africa – a lobby for oil marketers shows Nock being the fifth largest oil marketer with a market share for petroleum sales in Kenya stands at 4.9 per cent as of December last year.
Firms like Total Kenya command (21.4 per cent) of the market share, followed by KenolKobil (20.8 per cent), Vivo Energy (formerly Kenya Shell – 17.1 per cent) and Libya Oil (7.7 per cent). Nock, however, has plans to grow its share of the market through increase in retail outlets.
It is looking for land in major towns to set up flagship retail outlets. Recently, the firm announced its entry into the petroleum exports business targeting South Sudan and Eastern Congo.
