VenturesNow

Kenya is now the cheapest country to purchase diesel in Eastern Africa

Published

3 years ago

March 11, 2022

Africa News Watch

Kenya is now the cheapest country to purchase diesel in Eastern Africa

Culled from Businessdailyafrica

By John Mutua

SUMMARY

A litre of the commodity costs Sh112.63 on average in Kenya, compared to Sh118.44, Sh139.08 and Sh149.91 in three of the six East African Community countries, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, respectively.
This bucks a trend where Kenya has had the costliest super petrol and diesel in the region mainly due to relatively high taxes and levies.
The shift in the market structure is linked to the introduction of monthly subsidies in Kenya, which cut the current diesel prices by Sh23.29 a litre.

Diesel prices in Kenya are the lowest in eastern Africa in the wake of the monthly subsidy, reversing the market structure that made the country’s fuel the most costly in the region.

A litre of the commodity costs Sh112.63 on average in Kenya, compared to Sh118.44, Sh139.08 and Sh149.91 in three of the six East African Community countries, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, respectively.

This bucks a trend where Kenya has had the costliest super petrol and diesel in the region mainly due to relatively high taxes and levies, which encourage local motorists in border towns to fuel in the neighbouring countries.

The shift in the market structure is linked to the introduction of monthly subsidies in Kenya, which cut the current diesel prices by Sh23.29 a litre.

“The big difference is mainly attributed to the subsidy that the government has been using,” said an official at the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra).

Kenya introduced the subsidy on April 14 last year as part of efforts to defuse simmering public anger over the high cost of basic items.

The subsidy has kept pump prices unchanged for the fourth month in a row despite a jump in the cost of shipping the refined fuel.

It is supported by billions of shillings raised from fuel consumers through the petroleum development levy, which was increased to Sh5.40 a litre in July 2020 from Sh0.40, a 1,250 percent rise.

The fund cushions consumers from volatility in fuel prices but has also seen motorists lose out when paying the Sh5.40 for a litre at the pump.

Tanzania is the only country in the region with cheaper super petrol than Kenya, according to the pricing list on GlobalPetrolPrices.com — a site that tracks fuel prices globally.

A litre of super petrol is averaging Sh131.63 in Kenya while in Tanzania it is going for Sh125.2. Uganda has the costliest super petrol in the region at Sh158.1 per litre followed by Burundi at Sh152.85.

In September last year, Kenya had the most expensive super petrol in the region at Sh134.72 per litre, while the commodity retailed at Sh131 in Uganda. It was the cheapest in Tanzania at Sh115.26. The relatively high cost in Kenya was linked to taxes and levies.

There are seven levies and two taxes that Epra takes into account when setting fuel prices, which have been blamed for the high cost of petroleum products. The levies accounted for nearly half of current petrol costs, shifting the spotlight to taxation of petroleum products.

Tanzania scrapped a Sh4.90 ($0.043) levy charged per litre of fuel in a bid to lower fuel prices from the start of this month.

Kenya’s fuel subsidy has been crippled in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war that pushed crude oil prices to levels seen more than 10 years ago.

Government sources say the Treasury will struggle to pay oil marketers more than Sh25 billion over the next two months to keep pump prices unchanged despite a jump in the cost of shipping the commodity.

The current fuel being consumed in Kenya is based on the average crude oil prices of $82.03 a barrel, and the monthly review set for next Tuesday at $92.

Oil prices have jumped more than 30 per cent since 24 February, touching $139 a barrel at one point this week.

The oil price had fallen back to about $106 a barrel at one point on Wednesday, but by Thursday morning it was trading at around $116.

Officials at the energy regulator Epra reckon that the Treasury would require at least Sh10 billion this month and another Sh15 billion in April to compensate oil marketers and keep local pump prices unchanged.

With the fund supporting the subsidy exhausted, the Treasury will struggle to pay the marketers billions of shillings at a time when it’s faced with rising spending pressure from critical items like the August General Election and Covid-19 vaccines.

jmutua@ke.nationmedia.com

VenturesNow

Kenya seeks $750m from World Bank, obtains $200m from AfDB— Official

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The head of debt management for the finance ministry told Reuters that Kenya had obtained a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and was negotiating a fresh $750 million loan with the World Bank.

After being forced to abandon proposed tax rises costing more than 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion) in June due to fatal demonstrations, the East African nation’s administration, which has been grappling with significant debt, has been frantically seeking fresh funding.

The Finance Ministry’s public debt management office director general, Raphael Owino, told Reuters that the IMF’s October clearance of the seventh and eighth reviews, which opened the door for a $606 million loan tranche, had aided the ministry’s talks for more loans.

“The World Bank is coming on board, riding on the back of IMF receipts,” Owino said. “The AfDB is already on board.”

The discussions for more assistance, which came under the World Bank’s “Development Policy Operations” (DPO) with the government, were confirmed by a representative at the organization’s Kenya office.

“The amount of the current (loan) is yet to be determined. The amount will also depend on the implementation of the policy reforms agreed upon,” the spokesperson told Reuters, adding that past DPO loans averaged about $750 million.

In May, the World Bank approved the latest round of DPO loans, totalling $1.2 billion.

According to a statement made last month by Finance Minister John Mbadi, Kenya has set a foreign borrowing goal of 168 billion shillings for the fiscal year ending in June 2025.

VenturesNow

Dangote refinery begins petroleum sales to West Africa

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

In an indication to traders that the activities of its mega-refinery might soon disrupt regional fuel markets, Nigeria’s private Dangote Petroleum Refinery has started exporting refined petroleum products to neighbouring West African nations.

According to a Bloomberg story on Tuesday, a tanker had transported a consignment of petrol from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to seas off the coast of Togo, a nearby West African nation. The article cited data from Vortexa, Kpler, Precise Intelligence, a port report, and a ship-tracking tool.

According to the source, a CL Jane Austen recently departed west after loading over 300,000 barrels from Dangote.

Recall that Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Authority, stated last month that the nation is thinking of purchasing petroleum products from the Dangote refinery in order to reduce the approximately $400 million it spends each month on more costly exports from Europe.

Speaking at the OTL Africa Downstream Oil Conference in Lagos, the chairman of NPA, Ghana, said that by eliminating freight expenses, buying from Nigeria instead of Europe will lower the cost of other products and services.

“If the refinery reaches 650,000bpd a day capacity, all that volume cannot be consumed by Nigeria alone, so instead of us importing as we do right now from Rotterdam, it will be much easier for us to import from Nigeria and I believe that will bring down our prices,” Hamid said.

Two weeks ago, it was announced that the refinery would start exporting fuel to Namibia, Angola, and South Africa. Four more African nations—Niger Republic, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Central Africa Republic—had also begun talks with the refinery, it was said.

According to a very reliable source who spoke directly to one of our reporters, the management of the refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day was in the advanced stages of negotiations with the nations to begin lifting petroleum.

“I can confirm to you that talks are actually at the advanced stage with Ghana, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, while the initial discussion is coming up with Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic,” the source said.

The petroleum product shipment is currently floating off the coast of Lome, which is a well-liked location for ship-to-ship transfers, according to the source.

Furthermore, the final destination of the cargo of the CL Jane Austen is uncertain.

Despite being off Togo, the region is frequently utilised for ship-to-ship transfers, thus the gasoline may eventually be transported elsewhere.

“While the shipment is tiny in the context of the global gasoline market, it signals the ramp-up of Dangote’s production and the potential to export significant volumes of gasoline beyond Nigeria, which could upend regional markets.”

Last month, the refinery sent its first shipment of petrol by sea to Lagos, a neighbouring commercial centre.

Under the regulatory statute, the Federal Government last month terminated the state-owned oil company’s monopoly on purchasing gasoline from the plant for domestic use, but it has permitted the ongoing importation of fuel from the US and Europe.