Malawi tenders for 369m litres of fuel

Petroleum Importers Limited (PIL) has disclosed that it has advertised tenders for the acquisition of 369 million litres of fuel, which is enough to meet the country’s demand for one year starting from May 1, 2013.

PIL said in a statement on Sunday it expects to award and sign tenders with winning bidders in March to secure long term supplies of fuel for the country for the first time in years.

“The long term supply contracts are expected to reduce the overall importation bill for the country due to the economies of scale and shall further consolidate the gains already achieved this far on fuel stability,” said PIL.

The company, which is a consortium run by several fuel marketing companies, said it has been able to secure fuel supplies of late due to financial instrument made available to it through local banks.

It says since December last year, local banks have made available US$70 million in letters of credit which have enabled the company to import fuel and bring about the current stability of supplies on the local market.

“The fuel supply in the country has stabilised because PIL secured adequate financial instruments support importation of fuel into the country,” said PIL.

It mentions the Ministry of Finance, the Reserve Bank of Malawi, National Bank, Ecobank, Malawi Savings Bank, First Merchant Bank, FDH Bank and CDH Bank as some of the institutions that have supported it in ensuring that it has foreign exchange for the importation of fuel.

PIL has since disclosed that last week, it purchased an additional 43 million litres of fuel which is already ready for loading at the ports of Beira, Nacala, Mbeya and Dar es Salaam.

The company assures members of the general public that the fuel supply stability that the country has been experiencing from December 2012 will continue in the medium term.

Apart from availability of foreign exchange, PIL says it shall continue to import fuel through all the three traditional ports of supply namely; Beira, Nacala and Dar es Salaam and the Mbeya Depot in Tanzania to further enhance the logistics of supply, instead of over-reliance on the port of Beira alone as has been the case over the past two years.

“PIL shall continue to partner with commercial banks in order to arrange further financial instruments for importation of fuel,” reads the statement.