Twimepoki Mangani
Lilongwe, August 16, Mana: Minister of Information and Digitalization, Moses Kunkuyu says stable stocks of diesel and petrol will be achieved by the weekend as 3,617 million litres of diesel and 3,507 million litres of petrol which represents a 4.2 days’ cover is making its way into the country.
The Minister made the remarks Wednesday during a press briefing at the Centre of Information (COI) in Lilongwe where he was updating the nation on the position of fuel.
The Minister highlighted that the daily consumption of fuel has shot up to two million litres for diesel and petrol from 1.7 million litres because people are buying out of anticipation of stock outs.
He said the volumes currently available can provide cover for two days.
“What is being processed at the ports right now is 3,354 million litres of diesel and 9,080 million litres of petrol which represents a 60 percent of total imports since 1st August,” he said.
Kunkuyu said the major challenges of the fuel shortage has been forex which the Ministry of Finance is working on to extend the credit facility.
He revealed a supply deterioration in July when there was a day of up to 80 days in offloading 25,000 metric tonnes of fuel at the port of Beira which affected transit of the product.
“The issues of lack of letters of credit for banks to process the letters owning to our positon economically has been a challenge as mitigating factor National Oil Company of Malawi (NOCMA) has secured public credit from contracting supplies to about US$50 million (approximately K50 billion),” he said.
Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) Chief Executive Officer, Henry Kachaje highlighted that processes are underway to have Petroleum Importers Limited upscale the volumes they bring into the country so that NOCMA’s volumes go directly into the reserves and not into filling stations.
NOCMA Chief Executive Officer, Clement Kanyama said efforts to enhance use of Nacala- Blantyre railway are being considered.
He said while the challenge is that there is one major storage facility connected to the rail way, the Government of Mozambique has given Malawi land to develop storage facilities which will aid with the necessary quantities.
He also noted that the Beira route had challenges due to issues of natural disaster and that the Government of Mozambique will give priority to cargo that is coming to Malawi through the same route.
NOCMA with the aid of government and other development partners is hopeful that the strategic fuel reserves will be filled before September as necessary processes are underway.
