In an emergency press release this afternoon, following an article in the Kenyan press causing its shares to fall, the French company, number 3 of service stations in Kenya, denies being responsible for the fuel shortage in the country.
A policeman directs motorists queing to buy gasoline at one of the gas stations with fuel still available for sale, in the Hurlingham neighborhood of the capital Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, April 14, 2022 | Photo credits: Khalil Senosi/AP/Sipa
Very strange case. The shares of Rubis, a French group of distribution and storage of petroleum products, very present in Africa and the Caribbean, fell by 8% this Thursday on the Paris Stock Exchange. According to the Kenyan business daily Business Dailythe boss of Rubis Kenya, Jean-Christian Bergeron, would have been ordered to leave the country by the local authorities “As part of government crackdown on oil traders due to fuel shortage”which causes queues at gas stations and necessitates rationing at pumps.
We can read on the newspaper’s website that the national immigration directorate revoked Mr. Bergeron’s work permit after weeks of shortages that caused general discontent.
The expulsion order follows revelations from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) that the main oil majors have increased their fuel exports to neighboring countries, leading to the shortage that has been going on for three weeks.
Rubis controls 8.6% of the local market, making it the third largest distributor after TotalEnergies and Vivo Energies. Gulf Energy, Rubis’ sister company, controls 2.7% of the market.
Long delays in the repayment of subsidies
Following this information, Rubis has just issued an update on the situation in a press release. The company categorically denies allegations that its subsidiary “has increased its export sales to the detriment of the fluidity of the Kenyan market. » The fuel shortage would be the fact of the increase in the amount of subsidies [face à la flambée des cours du pétrole, le gouvernement kenyan a décidé de limiter les prix de vente dans les stations-service et de subventionner le différentiel] and their repayment with extended deadlines to distributors. » Thus, the dynamics of supply and demand would have led to increasingly significant stock shortages, in particular in the stations of independent Kenyan distributors, increasing the pressure on international distributors such as Rubis.
ME