The addition of Habesha Petroleum, JR-Petroleum Plc, Kernel Oil Trading Plc and Kalub Oil Ethiopia, pushed the total number of oil retail companies in the country to 22.
JR-Petroleum is the latest entrant among the four companies opening its doors on December 25, 2017. The company was established with a 21 million Br capital and is headquartered in Addis Abeba.
Founded by three partners engaged in distributing fuel from Nile Petroleum under a franchise arrangement, JR currently runs eight filling stations.
“Part of the stations were managed by Oil Libya previously,” said Desta Kassegn, general manager and major shareholder of JR.
The filling stations in Bahir-Dar, Gonder and Mojo had been under Oil Libya’s management, which has recently opened 17 new filling stations across the country.
Habesha Petroleum joined the business on December 1, 2017, after fulfiling the requirements set by the Ministry of Trade (MoT), which stipulates that any fuel retail company must have a 50,000lt depot and a minimum of six filling stations to get a licence.
Kalub Oil, operational since November 29, 2017, possesses eight filling stations across the country. The Company established with an investment capital of 21 million Br, retailed 836 cubic metres of petrol, 3,726 cubic metres of diesel, and 238 cubic metres of kerosene last month.
Kernel Oil Trading, operator of Baros Petroleum, became functional on November 14, 2017, with an initial capital of 20 million Br and six fuel stations. The mother company, Kernel, established five years ago, is also engaged in the export of oilseeds.
Two stations from Afar Regional State and another station in Illubabor, are already operational, while the remaining three stations in Bulbula, Degem in North Shewa and Gore, Oromia Regional State were recently finalised.
“The three new stations will be operational soon,” said Semere Bekele, general manager and co-founder of Baros.
The previously operational 18 retail companies posses a total of 800 stations throughout the country, much lower than neighbouring countries like Sudan and Kenya, which have 42 and 50 retail companies, respectively.
The four new companies contributed a total of 22 filling stations across the country.
National Oil Company (NOC), Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum (YBP), Total Ethiopia and Oil Libya dominate the oil retail market in Ethiopia.
The newly opened retail companies are provided with a monthly fuel quota based on their capital and market share, according to Yalemzerf Geremew, petroleum supply contract administration team leader at the Enterprise.
“If the retailers request for additional fuel, they will get extra supply once they pay off their debt,” Yalemzerf added.
The addition of the new retail, and filling stations will give better access to the public in line with the demand surge for fuel, according to Serkalem G. Kiristos former CEO of Dalol Oil S.c, one of the fuel retail companies.
“But still it would be preferable if the companies tie-up to form a giant company to fill the supply gap in the market,” Serkalem told Fortune.
Ethiopia consumes 3.8 million tonnes of petroleum annually, showing an average increase of 10pc every year. In the past fiscal year, the Enterprise imported 3.4 million tonnes of petroleum products with 1.7 billion dollars, while the preceding year’s import was 3.1 million tonnes, costing the nation 1.3 billion dollars.
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