Gapco in the doghouse after State says imports are impure

By Macharia Kamau

An oil marketing company is facing suspension from the Ministry of Energy’s open tender system, following discovery of impurities in cargo it imported into the country.

Twenty million litres of diesel imported by Gapco Kenya were found to be contaminated with two million litres of petrol. The impurities were detected after the diesel had been transferred to the Kipevu Oil Storage Facility (KOSF) and was ready to be discharged to the market.

In a letter to Gapco, Energy PS Patrick Nyoike said an inspection had established that the contamination occured during discharge, due to a faulty vessel, and warned the firm against using substandard ships when importing petroleum products.

Nyoike further warned the firm of dire consequences, including denying it participation in the OTS, if it does not remove the contaminated cargo from the industry storage facility immediately.

"This is to ask you to evacuate the contaminated from the KOSF AGO tank. Failure to do this will leave us with no option but to deny you participation in the OTS imports," said Nyoike in the letter dated September 10.

Gapco said plans are already at an advanced stage to remove the cargo from the storage facility run by KPC, but also said the contamination did not take place during transportation or discharge of the cargo.

An official of the company questioned how the cargo found its way to KOSF, if it was contaminated, noting that there were checks to ensure products were cleared of impurities before, and during discharge, and the impure diesel cargo would have been detected.

"There are standard procedures that entail frequent testing of samples of the cargo during the process of discharging to ensure that there is no contamination," the official said.

Under the system, a tender for importation of crude is awarded to an individual oil company, which then imports crude for the whole industry, and supplies other oil companies.