News: Amidst dire fuel shortage, Addis Abeba trade bureau confiscates eight fuel trucks for failing to deliver

Addis Abeba – The Addis Abeba City Trade Bureau said it has confiscated eight trucks loaded with fuel and belonging to fuel stations for allegedly failing to to allow the fuel trucks to enter Addis Abeba city. The news comes in the midst of dire fuel shortage in the city that saw long queues for fuel in stations across the city.

Deputy Head of the city’s Trade Bureau, Mesfin Assefa, said that the eight fuel trucks were confiscated Sunday based on community tips and suggestions from security forces. Mesfin accused the fuel stations of “deliberately ignoring” government rules preventing the trucks from entering the city. The fuel was subsequently distributed the fuel stations in the city, according to him.

Mesfin further said that similar actions “will be intensified” against fuel companies “that do not comply with the law and do not do their job properly.”

On 02 July, the Ethiopian Petroleum and Energy Authority said that 26 of the 36 fuel companies in Ethiopia have failed to submit the required report on the status of delivery of fuel trucks from Djibouti to their respective stations.

Deressa Kotu, Director of Petroleum Supply, Distribution, Monitoring and Control at Authority, told state media that only 10 companies have prepared and submitted the required report on fuel shipments and supplies and the authority has issued warning to the 26 that did not submit their reports.

Deressa said that each company was instructed to report on the arrival of fuel from Djibouti under its name to each fuel station and the status of the supply. Accordingly, ten companies including Total, OiLibya, United and Zagol are working by submitting the required reports, whereas the 26 others, including National Oil Ethiopia (NOC) have failed to comply with the reporting obligations.

They have been warned and given ultimatum to submit the report on or before mid-day 02 June, he said, cautioning that the warning extends up to revocation of licenses and taking legal measures.

According to the Petroleum and Energy Authority, every day, 300 fuel tankers leave Djibouti port for Ethiopia. About 60 percent of this fuel is diesel.

There are more than 1,300 fuel stations across Ethiopia of which 137 are in Addis Abeba alone. However, 20 of them were not functioning for various reasons.

Last week, the authority reported that some 200 fuel trucks which departed from Djibouti and were expected to arrive at various destinations including regional states failed to arrive at their destinations, prompting the authority to issue warning and ultimatum. However, until Friday 01 July, only 22 of the 200 trucks turned up to various fuel stations to unload the fuel. AS