Anxiety as fuel crisis bites

Motorists queue for fuel in Mbarara Town following a week-long fuel shortage. Only five fuel stations had fuel by Monday and were selling a litre of petrol at about Shs4,000. The shortage has hit other towns countrywide.  

Several filling stations around Kampala and other major towns around the country are already running short of fuel, sending motorists into panic, although the industry players remained optimistic that the shortage would be fixed soon.

In an interview with NTV, our sister media house, on Wednesday, the Minister of Energy, Ms Irene Muloni, admitted that the country is bound to run low on fuel because it lacks capacity to store reserves to last a week.

To solve that, she said the plan to refurbish the fuel reserves in Jinja is as good as finished.

The government has in the past, during similar crises, made the same promises but to no avail.

Meanwhile, if the expected fuel does not come in by today or latest tomorrow, sources within the fuel industry say the country could be headed for a crisis.

“We only store fuel that last for not more than three days, this means that each time we have irregular supply from western Kenya—where fuel is loaded, then there are bound to be shortages,” said a source with a major supplier, who did not want to be named so that he could speak freely.

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According to the source, the good news is that, by close of business today at least 11 trucks loaded with fuel would have arrived in town and many others are expected to follow suit, given that most of them are already being loaded.

Early this week, when the fuel shortage began to show, industry players pointed a finger at the fuel shipper Gulf Energy, a Kenyan gas station operator and fuel importer, which won the tender to supply fuel cargo to Ugandan companies.

It is understood that the shipper failed to deliver the product on time, explaining the shortages. Gulf Energy boss Francis Njogo said in an interview that, “he has no market in Uganda.”

Most hit
The most hit by the shortage is Total Uganda. Already Filling stations like Kobil, Rio Oil, and City oil filling stations among others had increased the pump prices of petrol from between Shs3,550 to Shs3, 900.

By press time diesel prices were still stable— trading between Shs3,100-Shs3,220.

In Jinja, Mbale and other towns in eastern Uganda, fuel prices had slightly gone up by at least between Shs100 to Shs150 (From Shs3,450 last week to about Shs3,650 a litre).

A survey by Daily Monitor done in Mbale indicated that a litre of petrol at Total petrol station was going for Shs3,650, while diesel cost Shs3,100 and paraffin Shs2,670.

At Gapco, cost Shs3,650 and diesel at Shs3,160.

At Hass petrol station, a litre of petrol cost Shs3650, diesel at was Shs3,160.
SOURCE:http://www.monitor.co.ug