Page 18 - DMEA Week 39

DMEA FUEL DMEA

Tanzania reports LPG imports

up 16.4% in 2019

TANZANIA TANZANIA’S Energy and Water Utilities Reg- and access the use of LPG,” the newspaper
ulatory Authority (Ewura) revealed last week quoted him as saying.
Tanzania imported that LPG imports went up by more than 16% in
166,436 tonnes of LPG 2019, demonstrating the success of public and Motor fuel market
last year. private-sector initiatives touting the fuel as an Maganga further stated that Ewura was also
alternative to traditional materials such as wood backing efforts to build more filling stations in
and charcoal. rural areas. To this end, he said, the agency has
In a new report on the domestic LPG market, revised some of the regulatory requirements
Ewura said that Tanzania had imported 166,436 applying to new stations.
tonnes of LPG in 2019. This marks a 16.4% “For this reason, the Petroleum (Retail
increase on the previous year’s figure of 142,939 Operations in Townships and Villages) Rules
tonnes, it noted. 2017 will continue to be applicable, [while] the
The agency went on to say that about 65% of requirements for constructing a petrol station
all LPG imports had been sold on the domestic in rural areas have been lessened to reduce
market in 2019. The remaining 35%, it said, were investment costs while observing the Health,
re-exported to neighbouring countries – primar- Safety and Environment (HSE) requirements,”
ily Kenya, which absorbed 70% of all re-exports. he said.
Gerald Maganga, the head of Ewura’s petro- He also reported that Tanzania’s demand for
leum division, said last week that he hoped to motor fuels was on the rise and stated that the
see domestic LPG consumption continue to government wanted to ensure that petroleum
rise. There is room for expanding distribution in products could be distributed safely in all parts
rural areas of the country, he told The Citizen. of the country. (According to Ewura’s report, the
“LPG suppliers should put more effort into East African country was home to 1,596 opera-
developing their distribution networks to cater tional filling stations as of the end of 2019, up by
for low-income earners so that they can afford 9.32% on the year-ago figure of 1,460. ™

P18 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 39 01•October•2020