THE managing director of the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor), Imms Mulunga, says the company cannot divulge sensitive commercial information on how exactly it made turnover of N$3,3 billion from its national oil storage facility.
He also said they believe the facility will reach 100% usage in the foreseeable future. The facility is currently still operating at 60%.
Mulunga says although Namcor is a state-owned company, it is a commercial entity that competes with other privately owned companies, and he therefore cannot divulge sensitive commercial information to the media.
He says Namcor's export volumes to Botswana and Zambia vary from month to month, depending on pricing during a specific month.
"If our pricing is competitive, we sell more, and when not our export sales are very low. Our competitors also sell to those markets on a monthly basis," he says. This is Mulunga's response to media reports saying Namcor has generated N$3,3 billion from the facility since January this year.
This was recently revealed by finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi, who was responding to parliament questions regarding the spending of N$5,8 billion to construct the facility. He was speaking in his capacity as acting public enterprises minister.
According to Namibian Sun, Namcor imports products, distributes them to its inland customers, and exports the rest to Zambia and Botswana.
The publication also reported that Namcor recently started handling products imported by other international marketing companies, such as Puma, Engen and TotalEnergies.
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The Namibian reported in July that the recently completed facility at Walvis Bay is currently operating at only 60% of its capacity.
Mulunga at the time said ongoing pipeline modifications have kept the facility from achieving its full potential.
"We envisage that the hosted companies will ramp up their volumes in line with the agreements that full utilisation will be achieved as soon as the changes are made," he said.
The storage facility consists of seven tanks with a capacity of 75 million litres.
Mulunga in July said the facility will be fully used as soon as pipeline modifications and other outstanding matters are completed.
Namcor discharged 644 million litres through the new tanker jetty between December 2020 and June 2022.
Terminal throughput of 443 million litres was discharged through the facility, including backloads and transfers during the period.
The facility is the only 100% state-owned oil-storage site in the country.
The construction of the facility commenced in January 2015 and was officially handed over to Namcor on 1 March 2021.
The facility is financed through two African Development Bank loans acquired for the government through the Development Bank of Namibia - one of N$2,8 billion, and another of N$1,5 billion.
The Namibian in 2020 reported that the government will be repaying N$30 million per month towards the N$2,8-billion loan for 13 years.
The N$1,5 billion loan is being repaid at N$25 million per month over eight years.
