Times Of Swaziland: FUEL CRISIS: GOVT SLAMS GALP STATEMENTS

FUEL CRISIS: GOVT SLAMS GALP STATEMENTS
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BY SABELO MAJOLA on 30/12/2020 23:31:00


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.