By Chris Kiwawulo,
Joyce Namutebi
and Henry Mukasa

FUEL supply is expected to normalise next week, energy state minister Simon D’ujanga told Parliament on Wednesday.

The minister said a large ship carrying fuel docked at Mombasa two days ago and the pipeline from Mombasa to Nairobi, which has been experiencing power problems was being repaired.

“We expect fuel supply to flow normally from next week,” D’Ujanga assured.

He was responding to a question raised by Mbarara Municipality MP, John Kigyagi as to what happened to the restocking of the national fuel reserves in Jinja.

He said that early this year, the country experienced fuel shortage because of a breakdown in the oil pipeline and post election conflict in Kenya.

D’Ujanga said cabinet had asked for a supplementary budget of sh45b to restock the reserves, but that the procurement was faulty because it had not gone through Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets procedure.
He said the ministry will issue a statement to explain the fuel shortage in the country.

The flow of fuel products into the country relatively improved on Wednesday with more trucks getting cleared at the border, but petrol still remained in low supply, with dealers having to ration fuel. Many reserved petrol for their regular clients only.

Earlier, mineral development state minister Kamanda Bataringaya said Uganda Revenue Authority was clearing as many trucks as possible to save the situation. He, however, could not quantify how much fuel had come in.

“URA has cleared many of the fuel trucks that were hitherto stranded at the border. Fuel is now coming in,” the minister said.

URA partly caused the fuel shortage because they were installing a new clearing system and could not therefore clear any trucks.

Bataringaya said some of the problems that had caused the delay in the flow of fuel “were not of our own making.” He cited the insufficient clearing space at Mombasa Port that delayed clearing of fuel.

The dealers’ chairman, Rajni Tailor, said the dealers were doing everything possible to bring in fuel but the situation had not yet got better. He said the little fuel coming in is immediately consumed. “Fuel stations are getting between 1,000 to 2,000 litres a day, this is too little compared to the demand,” Tailor argued.

According to the Government statistics, Uganda uses over 1.2 million litres of diesel, 543,000 of petrol and 300,000 of jet fuel daily.

Tailor, who owns a string of Gapco filling stations revealed that the fuel shortage had increased power cuts. He also said that they were contemplating switching off generators to avoid making losses.

“What is the essence of running a generator to light up Kampala streets when you have no fuel?” he asked.

Kobil chairman Daniel Segal and Shell boss Ivan Kyayonka confirmed that they were bringing in fuel and working hard to calm the situation.