News
Major fuel shortage hits towns
Posted Tuesday, December 16 2008 at 22:27
In Summary
- Situation may derail plans of travellers during festive season, say petroleum dealers
A shortage of fuel has hit parts of the country just days before the start of the busy Christmas and New Year holidays.
Shortages were reported in Nairobi, central Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western provinces.
Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) said they were pumping enough petrol from Mombasa to Nairobi and other hinterland areas but dealers had not raised their orders.
But dealers claimed that demand for petroleum products had increased after prices were lowered from an average Sh93 per litre to the current Sh78.
Increase in prices
Motorists feared that the dealers were laying ground for an increase in the prices of petroleum products.
In Kisumu, KPC depot manager Joshua Nyatete said they had adequate supplies and blamed dealers for not adjusting their volumes to meet the rise in demand.
“We cleared all the orders by local petroleum products dealers on Jamhuri Day (Friday) and still had some stock left. The shortage could be as a result of the marketers’ declared product volume being exceeded by demand,” said Mr Nyatete.
The manager said most oil marketers were yet to revise the declared product volume in line with customs regulations, which affected the allowable quantity of allocation to them.
This, he said, was constricting their ability to meet increasing demand.
A survey by the Nation on Tuesday, however, showed that dealers had not increased their pump prices.
At Shell petrol station in Kisumu Town, petrol was retailing at Sh79.9 a litre, while diesel was selling at Sh72.9. At Total outlets, petrol was going for Sh79.9 a litre and diesel at Sh74.9, while at National Oil, petrol was retailing at Sh79.8 and diesel at Sh72.9.
In Kakamega Town, some petrol stations reported a shortage of diesel. An official of Somken petrol station Mohammed Abdi Khadir said he received his supply of fuel last Friday.
He got 4,000 litres of diesel and 2,000 litres of petrol, which had run out by Tuesday.
“We have placed a fresh order for fuel which we expect by the end of the day or tomorrow,” said Mr Khadir.
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Submitted by charlzkPosted December 17, 2008 10:59 PM
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Submitted by Daniel08
Kenya needs regulatory bodies that are effective and protect the end consumers from exploitation. This bodies should be charged with the duty to recommend, force deregistration and the withdrawal of trading licences for any business which create cartels, artificial shortages that result to price manipulations or operate in a manner likely to artificially manipulate the normal market forces of supply and demand and trading patterns for financial benefits. This Act should also be enacted specifically to deal with this problem and enable effective prosecution of the perpetrators
Posted December 17, 2008 12:55 PM -
Submitted by ngongi1
We are dealing with with careless people..you owners of oils companies..do you feel it is right when people suffer they way they do? Am sure most of you have families there!Where is your conscience? Escaped thru the window before dawn!!
Posted December 17, 2008 01:13 AM -
Submitted by MichaOlga
Haya basi...it's time to buy and store as much fuel as you can and store...just don't light a match in your house. At all!
Posted December 16, 2008 11:53 PM -
Submitted by MichaOlga
Oh God! not again! Ama is this another one of those artificial shortages they're creating...? Whoever 'they' may be?
Posted December 16, 2008 11:52 PM
RSS
ngongi1 This is clearly not a fault of the goverment or MPs. With low global oil prices, the oil companies will reduce production causing the price to rocket due to the high demand. Just common market practice you can see this with OPEC (Oil and Petroluem Exporting Countries, for those who don't know) reduce their daily production.