PIL falls short of K9b to bring required amount of fuel

Petroleum Importers Limited have announced that they have secured $13 million which is about K13 billion from local banks to be used in the importation of fuel but they are falling short of K9 billion.

Petroleum Importers Limited General Manager, Martin Msimuko confirmed the development saying that the secured amount of money falls short of K9 billion to bring the required amount of fuel in the country.

Malawi approximately consumes 22 million litres per month and Msimuko has requested the Reserve Bank of Malawi to help them with K9 billion to reach the required amount of fuel that the country uses monthly.

“Amidst the challenges that we face on foreign exchanges in the country, Petroleum Importers Limited has been bringing enough fuel for the companies that we import for. We can confirm that in the past eight months, PIL has managed to import 140 million litres for our customers like Puma, TotalEnergies, Petroda, and Vivo. This represents 56 per cent which is 6 per cent more than our 50 per cent share. This clearly shows that we are covering others in this regard.

“Due to rising worl oil prices letters of credit facilities are getting utilized quickly, we are having to wait for room in the facilities to issue more LCs. We have secured K13b short of our monthly needs. We need K22 billion to import monthly requirements for our four customers. Clearly we also need support from the Reserve Bank of Malawi for us to bring the required amount of fuel volumes,” said Msimuko.

Msimuko said Petroleum Importers Limited is working tirelessly to source the forex in its quest to solve the situation of forex scarcity.

He said that as the company, PIL has managed to engage local banks, central banks and international banks to have their hands on the situation in order to have the foreign exchange challenges curbed.

“We are hopeful that we will succeed as we are working around the clock to find the adequate foreign exchange and we are engaging banks to intervene on the situation.

“With the amount of already sourced fund, over 8 million litres of fuel will be brought in the country and we have already started. We are confident that the situation will come to normal as asoon as we get the facilities we are striving for,” said Msimuko.

Deputy Cheif Executive Officer for the National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) Hellen Buluma told the Parliamentary committee of Trade and Tourism that they have secured K53.7 billion from Reserve Bank of Malawi, Standard Bank, FDH Bank and NBS for fuel importation.

Meanwhile, the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority has announced the slashing of Petrol price by K200 per litre.