ERC Director General Joe Nganga says this will cushion firms that have increased sales volume to have enough fuel for their customers/FILE
ERC Director General Joe Nganga says this will cushion firms that have increased sales volume to have enough fuel for their customers and avert shortages of fuel in the country.
“We will avoid a situation where you can have one supplier having a stock-out and another still having products in the system, “he said.
Nganga says the regulation is already with the acting Energy Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich to be gazzetted.
This comes in the wake of a shortage of fuel in the country experienced towards the end of last week affecting super petrol.
He says the commission has since established that the shortage was as a result of an increase in the retail sales, leading to increased volume requirement of the products.
“Vivo Energy was the first to experience this shortage but as news spread, there was panic buying by consumers leading to a domino effect on the rest of the oil companies. This is not a development that is unique to the oil industry; it occurs in any situation where prices fall because consumers have a propensity to purchased more with lower prices, “Nganga said.
He says the situation has now been contained with all stations well stocked.
“I wish to confirm all super petrol imports are on schedule and the country is well covered in terms of petroleum stock days,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Kenya Pipeline Company has distanced itself from the ongoing fuel shortage in the country saying it’s not to blame.
In a statement the KPC Acting Managing Director Flora Okoth said the company had enough stocks in their systems in Nairobi and other parts of the country for all products.
Okoth said over the last seven days, KPC released over 14 million litres of Super petrol to various oil marketing companies compared to an average daily consumption of two million litres.
She says about 101 million litres equivalent to 40 percent of the total loadable stocks for all grades had been in the KPC system for the last seven days.
