Nock Ups Petrol Stations to Stabilise Fuel Costs
The Government owned National Oil Corporation of Kenya says it is to step up its expansion programme by acquiring more pump stations across the country.
Having the national oil company play a major role in the retail end will stabilise pump prices, said deputy managing director Sumayya Hassan-Athmani.
Pump prices have been hovering around the Sh100 mark within Nairobi’s Central Business District since the beginning of last week.
The oil marketer, which also doubles up as marketing agent for exploration blocks, has already acquired 34 fuel stations up from six stations it owned two years ago. The stations are spread across the country.
“We must have a strong presence in the market if we are to offer price stability,” said Mrs Athmani. Nock, he said, is on the lookout to purchase and re-brand existing pump stations.
“We’ve known for sometime that multinationals cannot stay in Kenya for a long time. At some point they will leave. That’s why we are taking the front row in growing our roots in the local fuel marketing scene,” Mrs Athmani said in an interview with the Business Daily.
Last year Nock claimed that its attempt to penetrate the grassroots by branding existing pump stations was frustrated by multinational oil companies.
The company acting CEO Mwendia Nyaga claimed then that multinationals undercut them by signing deals with pump station owners who had agreed to change to Nock brand colours.
Nyaga said that some of the station owners refused to adorn the Nock brand after multinationals offered them more money.
Nock has said it is venturing into upstream oil business by placing an application with the ministry of energy to be allocated four exploration blocks in Lamu.
CNOOC, the Chinese oil explorer licensed to prospect oil in Northern Kenya is set to acquire seismic data from Nock that will inform its exploration activities in Kenya.
This comes two years after the company signed a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with the Government of Kenya to conduct an integrated geological study in several blocks in Kenya. The Geological study information gathered enabled CNOOC to concentrate its efforts on two blocks located in Lamu and Anza Basins.
At this second stage of the exercise CNOOC Africa’s seismic data acquisition team will be joined by a senior Geophysicist from Nock Oil Francis Njuguna.
Speaking while visiting the exploration site, National Oil Managing Director, Mr Mwendia Nyagah said that the Government has intensified its search for oil especially now that Kenya is spending up to 23 per cent of its foreign exchange reserves on importing crude oil from the Middle East.
“Kenya is facing a huge challenge with rising oil prices. It is critical that we establish an alternative source for our energy needs,” said Mr Nyaga.
Source: Business Daily
Tags: fuel costs, Kenya, price rising