FUEL CRISIS: GOVT SLAMS GALP STATEMENTS

MBABANE - Government has come out guns blazing against Galp Eswatini following the latter’s statement pertaining to the shortage of fuel in the country.

The management of Galp Eswatini issued a statement where a number of accusations were thrown at government, as a regulator of the oil industry, to which the latter has responded. 

Galp Eswatini had alleged that it had been discouraged to duplicate investment in a depot capacity expansion programme on the premise that government’s upcoming strategic fuel reserves facility at Phuzumoya would soon be operational.  

Shared

The fuel retailer said the plan for a depot expansion was shared with the regulator in the period 2013/14, but to date, the promised facility had not progressed. 

They also accused government of not engaging stakeholders when hiking the non-SACU fuel import stamp duty by 2 500 per cent, which the fuel retailer claims the move effectively closed the option for suppliers from Mozambique in the long-term and it places Eswatini in a high risk situation should fuel supplies from South Africa fail. 

The regulator was also accused of changing goalposts, hence contributing to the fuel shortage that was experienced in the country in the last few days. 

In its response to these accusations, government, through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, implored oil companies to refrain from uttering what it termed unfounded and malicious defamatory statements that may put it (government) into disrepute. 

The Ministry’s Principal Secretary, Dorcas Dlamini, said government remained committed to assisting all oil companies as they stimulated the country’s economic activity.

Dlamini said no ministry had ever, at any point, discouraged any oil company from investing in any of its commercial depots on the premise of government’s upcoming strategic fuel reserves facility at Phuzumoya. 

“Commercial stocks are an integral part of an oil company’s business operations, while strategic stocks are national stocks to cater for severe fuel supply disruptions. Hence, even with the strategic depot, oil companies should have commercial depots. Furthermore, government’s policy directive is communicated officially in writing. The oil company making this assertion has not provided the written directive,” shared Dlamini. 

She shared that through collaborative efforts between government and affected oil companies, there has since been an improvement regarding the availability of fuel in all retail outlets around the country. 

normalisation

Also, she said members of the public were requested to continue to be patient as government worked towards the complete normalisation of the situation. 

She said government could report that the challenges that were reported in the previous statement, save for the refinery issue, had since improved. 

“Haulage trucks are loading seamlessly and oil companies are encouraged to report to government any challenges they may encounter as they do so. Oil companies have been granted, by government, special permits over and above their normal quotas to import fuel from countries outside SACU, subject to applicable legislation,” she said. 

The PS also clarified the issue of import quotas, where government was accused by the fuel retailer of doing it arbitrarily. 

She said it was incorrect and an unfortunate misleading assertion that they introduced the import quotas arbitrarily, as the Ministry of Finance did hold consultations, back in September 2020, with oil companies and reached an agreement with these companies that the transition to intra-SACU would be gradual with a progressive five per cent reduction of extra-SACU stock on a monthly basis. 

Agreed

The PS also highlighted that it was further agreed that this five per cent progressive reduction rule would be relaxed in cases where there were supply disruptions in South Africa, such as the recent close down of the refinery, as a result of fire in early December 2020.

Galp Eswatini Sales and Marketing Director Fanie Mthethwa said the fuel retailer could not comment on the matter for now as they had not received a correspondence from government on its statement. 

“Until we get the reaction statement from government, we can’t comment on the matter,” he said briefly.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: