For two weeks, oil product distribution rationing has been visible in most service stations in urban areas of Cameroon. Behind this practice, which obliges motorists to search near and far for fuel, is a shortage with which sector operators and public authorities have been grappling as best they can.
However, according to authorised sources, return to normal will require the urgent importation of around 120,000 tonnes of oil products. “For the month of June, need has been estimated at around 220,000 metric tonnes.
Sonara (the National Refinement Company), which has been on standby since May 31 and will remain that way until June 21, 2014, forecast 66,000 tonnes.
Reserves are estimated at approximately 35,000 tonnes. Therefore, the gap is around 120,000 metric tonnes,” explains a reliable source.
Without the financial means to import crude oil for refinement, Sonara operated practically at 50% of its potential throughout the month of May, its providers being slow to deliver crude oil to the heavily indebted public company that has been fraught with cash-flow challenges.
Indeed, since 2008, due to the government’s restrictions on oil produced price increases, the national refinery has sold its finished products at prices far below the purchase price of crude oil, the shortfall having to be made up by the State, that has yet to open its chequebook. At the end of 2012, the State of Cameroon officially owed Sonara approximately 400 billion Fcfa.
Furthermore, private operators who previously answered the government’s call for tenders to ensure oil product importation are now demanding that the State pay up its 235 billion Fcfa tab and refrain from taking on new credit continue importing fuel.
