Energy: rising fuel prices and stockouts also on the African continent
A gas station in Niamey, Niger.
(Illustrative photo) LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Gambia but also the Central African Republic, Chad, Uganda or Kenya… Many countries on the continent are facing soaring fuel prices as well as, sometimes, stockouts at the pump.
How can this situation be explained beyond the constraints that all regions of the world are currently facing, such as the rise in prices due to the increase in freight prices?
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A large number of countries on the African continent import fuels with less stringent specifications than other regions of the world.
With the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, States now have to get supplies elsewhere, on markets that are already tight and in ranges of products that are inherently more expensive.
Another problem is that of limited storage capacities in most states.
In Mali, for example, it is approximately 40,000m³, which represents approximately one week of autonomy, explains a specialist in the sector.
In Guinea, we encounter the same difficulty with 60,000 m³ of storage capacity for diesel, while consumption amounts to more than 100,000 m³ per month.
In addition, some States have taken measures to limit the rise in prices at the pump, which reduces the margins of independent operators.
For lack of sufficient profitability, some refrain from importing fuel, which dries up certain markets, further details this specialist.
Read also: Togo: rising fuel prices source of tension in Lomé
The countries that are doing the best today are those like Mauritania that have price correction mechanisms that compensate operators and those that, like Niger, refine oil on their soil.
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Africa
Oil
Energies