A Kenyan oil company wins tender to supply bulk oil in Tanzania

A Kenyan based oil marketing company known by its name ‘Gapco Kenya Ltd’ has won the 22^nd tender to supply petroleum products in Tanzania under the country’s Bulk Procurement System (BPS) scheduled for the month of June this year. The tendering process is currently being organized by Petroleum Importation Coordinator (PIC) on a monthly basis and this time, a Kenyan oil company has emerged the winner in competition with other six oil marketing companies operating in the country. PIC General Manager Michael Mjinja told a press conference yesterday in Dar es Salaam that out of the six competing companies, Gapco Kenya Ltd had the minimum weighted average premium of 36.048 the lowest against the rest while the maximum was 48.982. He said other companies which submitted tenders and their average premium in brackets included Augusta Energy SA (38.457), Enoc Africa Limited (41.472), Addax Energy SA (47.078), Vitol SA (48.982), Trafigura PTE Ltd (40.261). Mjinja said the winning bid which was selected quoted a lower price an indication of lower fuel prices come in June, adding that,  his company was worried over how the premiums keep on declining and noted that they only prefer to take those ones whose weight average has the lowest price level.  Under the quotations, the company would be required to supply a total of 253,745 metric tones of oil whereby Diesel would be 157,482, Petrol is 82,541, Jet fuel is 12, 622 and Kerosene is 1,100. All measured in metric tones. With the above quotations out of which 138,450 metric tones would be for local consumption while 115,295 metric tones would be for transit to neighboring countries. Seven oil companies picked tenders but only six returned them, according to Mjinja. He mentioned Glencorte Energy UK Ltd the firm which pulled out. He said this month’s bidding was very competitive as shown by the small margin between the price quotes in bids. However, he further noted that, the bidding was conducted through the International Competitive Bidding, procedures specified in the Petroleum Act Cap 392, The Petroleum (Bulk Procurement) Regulation, 2013 (G.N. No. 59 of 2013) and the Petroleum (Bulk Procurement) System Implementation Manual. The PIC which coordinates bulk procurement of petroleum product on behalf of Oil Marketing companies in the country issued invitation for bids in early April this year. Mjinja revealed this yesterday at a meeting shortly before opening of the 22^nd tender bids since its inception in mid 2012. Initially the tenders were being offered to a winning company for a period of three months, but had decided to reduce the time frame for supply of this precious commodity to a one month owing to some difficulty logistics which most companies could not meet on the course for their preparations. On his part, Rajesh Kumar, the head of supplying division of the winning company has appreciated for the award given to his company and in turn has assured Tanzanians that his company will keep abreast with all the regulations laid down by the PIC. However, in his message he has relayed that, they shouldn’t be worried about as his company has prepared to ensure a constant supply of fuel throughout the month for which it offered a tender. GAPCO Kenya is a subsidiary of Gulf Africa Petroleum Corporation of Mauritius an importer and distributor of oil products in the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania whereby it operates under the name of  Gapco Tanzania Limited.

Statistics made available shows that, it’s estimated that Tanzania uses a total of 2 million. litres of petrol, 3.9 litres of diesel, 550,000 litres of oil jet and 190,000 litres of kerosene per day. According to the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority. The country is also a transit hub for oil products that are shipped to nations in the region including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Zambia.