- Dismisses “current or imminent fuel supply challenge in Botswana”
- Retailing stations experience stock challenges
Botswana Oil (BOL) said it has sufficient reserves to last at least three months, meeting regulatory requirements and alleviating concerns about a supply squeeze caused by the planned maintenance at South Africa’s NATREF refinery. BOL’s response to this publication comes in light of reports that retailing points have been experiencing challenges with the supply of fuel, particularly in Gaborone. But as far as BOIL is concerned, there’s no shortage they know of.
Botswana is a net oil importer with annual consumption estimated at 1.3 billion litres (21,000 barrels per day).
Effective 1st April this year, BOL has been mandated to import 90 percent of this national consumption.
About 60 percent of the market demand is sourced from South Africa while the balance is obtained from Mozambique and Namibia.
BOL Senior Manager, Mpho Mokgosi, told The Business Weekly & Review that the availability of the product to meet the country’s demand for the next three months has been secured from two major suppliers in South Africa and other suppliers in Mozambique and Namibia.
“BOL long aligned with the refinery prior to the shutdown for stock build-ups to ensure continuity of supply during the shutdown,” she said.
“In addition to this and on the backdrop of challenges that may result from refinery shutdown, BOL has aligned with key stakeholders in government to allow for securing contingency volumes from the alternative routes from Mozambique and Namibia until the end of September 2024.”
Mokgosi explained this was meant to augment and mitigate against shortages that may result due to unforeseen circumstances between now and the return of the refinery from this mentioned planned maintenance.
BOL said it informed its stakeholders oil companies and retailers of this planned maintenance long before BOL commenced with the 90 percent import mandate and that it continues to engage its customers.
“BOL has advised oil companies to equitably use all its depots to avoid overburdening one facility while another has ample capacity.”
In the coming months, Mokgosi revealed that BOL will also maximise delivery to oil companies’ own depots and keep them full, ensuring that they manage their day-to-day deliveries to their retailers from their own depots.
Interestingly, this publication has discovered that in Gaborone there are some retailing points experiencing shortages of fuel, especially 95.
But Mokgosi said as far as BOL is concerned, there is no current or imminent fuel supply challenge in Botswana.
“Fuel stocks in storage in the country are healthy and we are currently not experiencing any impediments out of the ordinary with our fuel volumes coming into the country,” she said.
“So, the current allegations of an impending fuel crisis, in our view, are misinformed and mostly likely exaggerated.”
Mokgosi says this is likely due to the heightened interest in fuel supply since implementation of the 90 percent import mandate.
“For example, the issue surrounding maintenance shutdown at one of the major refineries in South Africa is an annual occurrence since the establishment of that refinery which has never attracted a lot of attention from anyone including last year when there were major fuel supply constraints than it has been in many decades,” she explained.
Whereas product flow and product in storage remain healthy, Mokgosi noted that logistics, in particular trucks, have not always been optimally available, and challenges have not been out of the ordinary.
Further, BOL says trucking capacity has been augmented by additional capacity from neighbouring countries including rail.
Given the above, BOL says it would not be advocating fuel price hikes, pointing out that the recent changes on the pricing slate were not because of anything to do with it or the issuance of the 90 percent import mandate.
Since assumption of the mandate to import 90 percent of national consumption of fuel, BOL says it has hit the ground running and delivered under a constrained environment with the support of regulators, oil companies and the Ministry.
“Some of the initial key business processes and plans are being reviewed as we go along for optimisation,” Mokgosi said.
“Enhancements as well as changes resulting from this exercise will be socialised with key stakeholders prior to implementation during the next months to make the industry more efficient.”
