Fuel queues back
Motorists in the country have expressed frustrations over the continuous shortage of fuel despite authorities insisting that they are in control of the situation.
Spot-checks yesterday in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu showed that most service stations had run out of petrol.
In random interviews yesterday, a minibus driver operating on the Machinjiri-Limbe route, George Solomon said he spent hours waiting for fuel in the queue at Petroda Filling Station in Limbe.
He said: “This is a very disturbing situation, some service stations only have diesel and we are just waiting and hoping that a tanker will appear with fuel. We do not know when that will be, we are just hopeful.”
Another consumer, Martin Malemba, a motorcycle taxi operator (kabaza) in Bangwe Township, Blantyre, said he depends on his motorcycle business for daily survival.
“Without access to fuel, my family will now suffer because I have not been on the road for the past two days,” he said.
Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) acknowledged the fuel challenge in a statement released yesterday, insisting that it is making every effort to stabilise the flow of fuel supplies and the situation is expected to normalise within a few days.
Reads the statement in part: “The country will still experience fuel stock outs in some service stations this week. The Labour Day holiday has some impact on the delivery logistics and this is in addition to challenges registered last week. Despite these challenges, stock replenishment will gradually be scaled up and more deliveries are expected from tomorrow onwards.”
The authority has since urged the public to avoid panic-buying which it said distorts the consumption and performance of the fuel supply restoration plan.
According to Mera, both the National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) and Petroleum Importers Limited (PIL) have trucks that are in transit and delivery is expected today.
PIL general manager Martin Msimuko collaborated Mera’s position, saying “tankers of fuel are in transit and that we should have a normal supply by next week”.
However, Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito urged authorities to come clean that the country is facing serious forex shortages instead of attributing the scarcity to loading challenges at the ports when both Dar es Salaam,Tanzania and Beira, Mozambique have had no port challenges.
He said: “This challenge will go on as long as the authorities seem to have no idea on how to address the availability of forex to buy fuel. The simple answer is that Malawi is broke, the country has no forex and we can’t import fuel.
“Mera as a regulator needs to be transparent in the way they engage the public to earn trust.”
Last year, the country faced an adverse fuel shortage owing to dwindling foreign exchange reserves which stifled fuel imports into the country, forcing some oil marketing companies to ration both diesel and petrol.
However, the situation improved by December 2022 following improved sources of fuel financing, including the $50 million Badea fuel facility which became effective on November 10 2022 and upon sourcing of $10 million from local banks, according to Nocma.
However, the problem resurfaced in March with fuel replenishment dwindling to an average of over 84 percent.
Mera data shows that on average, Malawians use 845 000 litres of petrol and 834 000 litres of diesel a day.
PIL, which imports about 248 million litres of Malawi’s fuel annually, is mandated to bring into the country 50 percent of the country’s fuel requirements while Nocma brings in the remaining half.
