The Petroleum Importers Limited (PIL) says the stability in fuel supplies Malawi has been experiencing since mid-December 2012 is expected to continue in the medium term.
In a statement, PIL said currently the average total industry stock days in the country’s storage depots stand at 10 days for diesel, eight days for petrol and 9.4 days for paraffin.
PIL says the fuel supply has stabilised because it secured “adequate” financial instruments (letters of credit) for the importation of fuel with support from the Ministry of Finance, Reserve Bank of Malawi, National Bank of Malawi, Ecobank Malawi Limited, Malawi Savings Bank, First Merchant Bank, FDH Bank and CDH Investment Bank.
“Through the support of these institutions, PIL established letters of credit with $70 million, over the last 60 days, which were used to import fuel which brought about the current stability on fuel supplies in the country,” reads the statement from PIL.
In the statement, PIL further said that as of February 15 2013, it had already secured 43 million litres of fuel (diesel and petrol) set for loading to Malawi at the ports. According to a breakdown of the volumes, there are 13 million litres of diesel and eight million litres of petrol ready to be loaded to Malawi at the port of Beira whereas Nacala has five million litres of diesel, Mbeya has four million litres of diesel and Dar es Salaam is stocking 13 million litres of diesel destined for Malawi.
PIL has since advertised tenders for the supply of fuel for a one-year period starting from May 1 2013. In the contracts, PIL expects the suppliers to provide 369 million litres of fuel.
Malawi has since late 2008 been experiencing erratic fuel supplies which saw motorists spending days and nights on queues hoping to get fuel from the few stations that had stocks at a given time. The problem was widely attributed to shortage of foreign exchange in the country.
