The fuel crisis that is currently being experienced in the country is expected to end by Wednesday.
According to the Principal Secretary of the Department for Petroleum Andrew Kamau, the subsidy payouts to pay Oil Marketing Companies for the high cuts on their margins to maintain recommended fuel prices will be settled by Tuesday.
He said the long queues and incidents of filling stations running out of fuel are mainly caused by classic runs by Kenyan motorists who are buying fuel in bulk, causing the depletion of fuel in filling stations.
"This is a classic run, I mean, it is the same if you go to the bank if we all go to the bank to get our money out, they do not have money just sitting there, it is the same with petrol stations, they need to get it from the tank to the petrol stations," Kamau said.
Kamau explained the unusual situation where people are seen carrying jerrycans as being caused by smaller filling stations running out of gas and motorists running to larger players in the industry such as Total and Shell.
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With time, the larger players also get overwhelmed beyond their usual volumes.
“If 20 small petrol stations run out of fuel, we all run to larger suppliers, Shell or Total,” Kamau said.
Kamau also said other factors that compound the crisis include the issue of infrastructure. He explained that whenever filling stations run out of fuel; they have to wait for delivery trucks to replenish their supplies from the depot.
Meanwhile, these stations have a limited capacity of storage, forcing them to replenish the storage regularly, yet they have no pipeline connection to the depots, so they have to wait for truck deliveries.
"Now they sell a certain amount every month, now you are selling double. The infrastructure they have there is for a certain volume and they have to keep replenishing because their tanks are not connected to the depot by pipes and fuel has to be brought in by trucks," Kamau explained.
