The rate at which fuel prices have increased over the past 2 months is alarming and continues to worry motorists with no signs that these fuel prices will drop. Early this month, fuel prices started rising to almost 4,000 shillings a liter. This was attributed to an acute shortage in the market resulting from the ongoing repairs at the 40-year-old Kenya Pipeline company the main supply route to mainland Kenya and much of East Africa.
Other fuel companies attributed this to global increased oil prices. They said they had no option but to equally increase prices to match the global trend as Gilbert Assi Vivo Uganda Managing Director explained. “The current situation of contrasts is simply linked to the International Crisis of the refined product. You know we import all the products that are coming to Uganda and if you look at how prices have evolved over the last 3 months it’s really amazing. Prices have increased to more or less between 40 and 50 USD per metric ton between October and January. As companies we cannot do any other thing than increasing our prices to match what is being done on the International crisis.” Said, Gilbert Assi – Managing Director, Vivo Energy Uganda.
On whether the situation was likely to change anytime soon, Assi said it depended on the global trend. “We cannot predict and it is part of our strategy not to do speculations so we follow the trends. And we really hope to go down but we really cannot predict. It depends on so many factors, it is not our role to anticipate whether it will go down or up but we really pray for it to go down hopefully. But you know these oil prices have been low for quite a long moment and they are now going up, it shows that at some point it will stop but we don’t know when.” However, fuel companies have not had a significant effect in terms of consumption ever since the prices began going up. “We cannot feel it now because it is just starting so let’s wait for about 2 or 3 months we will be able to conclude on this.”
By today, a burrow of oil was selling at 65.06 USD an equivalent of 232,357 Uganda shillings yet 3 months ago, a burrow was at 52.9 USD an equivalent of 213,929 Uganda shillings.
