Relief as petrol supply restored
WILLIAM OERI | NATION
This woman was glad to have bought jerricans on May 04, 2011 as fuel shortage hit the country. The situation has since improved.
What you need to know:
- No more queues at oil stations as normalcy returns in major towns that had acute shortage
The shortage of petrol witnessed over the last four days started to ease on Friday after the government released seven million litres to the market.
The long queues and massive traffic jams witnessed at petrol stations since Monday were conspicuously missing as normal supply of petrol was restored.
Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi said Nairobi alone got 3.5 million litres.
A spot check by the Nation indicated most of fuel stations were operating normally after receiving their stocks.
The private sector blamed the shortage of petrol experienced since Monday largely on inefficiencies at the Kenya Petroleum Refinery in Mombasa.
In a statement to newsrooms, the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) chief executive, Ms Carole Kariuki, said the sector had incurred losses running into millions of shillings over the four days the country has experienced shortages.
Worst affected were manufacturing and transport sectors where businesses almost ground to a halt, Ms Kariuki said.
“Kepsa has been advised by its petroleum sector that the main reason for this shortage has been the inability of the Kenya Petroleum Refinery Ltd in Mombasa to meet its programmed production as scheduled due to inconsistent power supply, equipment failure and state of technology available,” she noted.
This inefficiency on the supply chain, she said, has led to product outages, a huge working capital burden and loss in revenue and value of stocks.
The alliance also cited the failure by the refinery to deliver fuel to the Kenya Pipeline Company, which supplies petrol to oil marketers.
“These inefficiencies lead to increased costs that have to be borne by the petroleum sector, as these costs are not included in the pricing formula recently applied by the government. The KPC system cannot accommodate the country’s total demand through imports and any shortfall must be delivered by other means (road and Rail) and through private depots at Mombasa,” she noted.
But the government claimed credit for the resumption of normal supplies and laid the blame on oil marketers.
“We have done everything possible to normalise the fuel supply. This has eased the situation,” Mr Murungi told the Nation by phone.
Most oil marketers reported that the situation was returning to normal in most parts of the country.
