Michael Wakabi, Special Correspondent
29 April 2008
Nairobi — An alternative route through Tanzania is not good enough to be used by oil companies importing jet fuel to Uganda.
This was the verdict of major oil companies reacting to Ugandan air operators' appeal to the government to compel oil companies to import part of their inventory through Tanzania or increase storage capacity.
Shell Uganda managing director Ivan Kyayonka said switching to the Tanzanian route would require significant investments in infrastructure to assure the quality chain. He also said that the post-election violence that hit Kenya early in the year should be seen as a one-off event.
"Let us not use this one absurd incident in Kenya to make expensive changes to existing designs," said Mr Kyayonka.
Although oil companies have made progress in opening up Tanzania as an alternative supply route for Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi-destined fuel in the wake of recent disruptions to supplies, this has been limited to diesel and to a lesser extent, petrol.
The air operators made the appeal for an alternative route on the sidelines of a Uganda Civil Aviation Authority licence application hearing, where they complained about jet fuel shortages. Kampala Aero Club proprietor Tim Cooper said that, at the height of the Kenyan crisis, they had to independently approach the Uganda Energy Ministry and BP Tanzania to get Avgas to Entebbe.
The operators said fuel shortages forced suspension of services for a number of weeks early in the year while mainline carriers were forced to make ad-hoc arrangements for refuelling as supplies of both Jet-A and Avgas ran low at Entebbe. The shortages disrupted domestic charter and scheduled operations, impacting on tourism.
However, CAA deputy managing director Rama Makuza said that following the political turmoil in Kenya, Uganda had set up a national technical team to address problems related to supply of Jet-A and Avgas.
He also blamed the oil companies for not fully using the storage capacity at Entebbe. "There has been a tendency to look at average usage and maintain stocks within that range to avoid holding unnecessary stocks, so the existing facility has not been fully utilised. This is going to change, because reserves are now taken to be of strategic importance," said Mr Makuza.
Shell, which runs the Joint Aviation Fuel Facility at Entebbe on behalf of competitors Total and Chevron, however says that while the country has adequate quantities of Jet-A it will take time to fill up the reserves because they had been drained during the crisis. On average, Entebbe needs 300,000 litres of jet fuel daily, meaning that at full capacity, the reserves can only hold enough supply for 15 days.
"The issue is throughput and not how much you stock. But having consumed whatever stock we had in the tanks, we need time to build it back up since you cannot fill the gap overnight. The supply route is constrained by infrastructure capacity.
He conceded that there has been a long running problem with supplying Avgas for general aviation but lays the blame on quantities, which he says are too small at the moment to justify use of the pipeline.
Shell says it will shortly be commissioning a 40,000-litre storage facility for Avgas at Kajjansi airfield, the hub of domestic operations. The political crisis in Kenya caught Ugandan authorities flatfooted, with empty fuel reserve tanks in Jinja emptying swiftly.
Efforts to restock were thrown into disarray when it emerged that the company selected to manage the Ush45 billion ($25.71 million) fuel reserves contract had no prior experience in the industry.
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