Biting fuel shortage sets off panic buying in Nairobi

By Macharia Kamau

The country is banking on a consignment of emergency fuel to avert a fuel shortage caused by technical hitches at the Mombasa Refinery.

The consignment, expected anytime this week, is being sourced at a time when most oil marketers have run out of stock and numerous retail outlets are without supplies.

Already some Kenol Kobil outlets are without premium petrol while the state-owned National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) anticipates its stock to be depleted this week.

The problem, ostensibly caused by the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited (KPRL) after its machines were disabled by power outages, threatens to sink the country into a deeper economic abyss as motorists resort to panic buying.

Gulf Energy was contracted last week to import the emergency 12.3 million litres of refined petrol.

"We are expecting the cargo to arrive in the country between September 6 and 8," said Mr Francis Njogu, Gulf Energy managing director.

It is not clear however if this will last the country till the next industry cargo arrives between September 18 and 20.

The perennial inefficiencies associated with KPRL, Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) and Kipevu Oil Storage Facility (KOSF) have forced some oil marketers to seek alternative channels to guarantee constant fuel supplies.

Leading marketers like Kenol Kobil are already using the Port of Dar es Salaam to supply their subsidiaries in the region.

"For some time now, a significant amount of oil imports to Rwanda and Burundi have shifted to Dar es Salaam from the Port of Mombasa.

George Wachira a consultant with Petroleum Focus attributes the shift to poor import handling and pipeline pumping capacity problems within Kenya’s petroleum system.