•Most filling stations in Nairobi are selling between 3,000 and 6,000 litres a day.
•Retail pump outlets and road transport account for 72 per cent of petroleum fuels sales. A petrol station attendant fuels a car in Nairobi’s CBD. FILE Sales volumes of petroleum products is on the drop despite a steep fall in pump prices.
Retailers are experiencing a drop in demand due to less transport, industrial and agricultural activities occasioned by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Filling stations in Nairobi are reporting up to 70 per cent drop in daily sales in the wake of restricted travel in and out of the Nairobi Metropolitan Area and the dusk to dawn curfew which have suppressed transport activities.
“The restriction of movement of population has significantly slowed performance of activities of transportation,” the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in the Economic Survey 2020, released last Tuesday.
Super Petrol, Diesel and Kerosene are retailing below Sh100 for the first time since 2017.
Overall industry trend shows a 60-65 per cent drop on consumption according to Supplycor Kenya Ltd, the umbrella body for oil marketing companies in Kenya, which coordinates activities along the fuel supply chain.
The aviation industry remains the most hit, Supplycor chairman Martin Kimani, who is also the general manager KenolKobil(Kenya), told the Star yesterday.
“Demand has reduced across the market on reduced economic activities. Aviation has literally collapsed,” said Kimani.
A spot check showed most filling stations in Nairobi are selling between 3,000 and 6,000 litres a day.
When the economy is on full throttle, strategically located stations mainly on busy highways and towns sale up to 60,000 litres of diesel and petrol every day.“Sales have gone down to about 6,000 litres a day from a high of 20,000 litres,” an attendant at a Shell petrol station in Westlands, Nairobi told the Star.This he said has forced the operator to send home some of the workers as a cost-cutting measure.An attendant at a Total filling station along Thika road said they are selling about 5,000 litres a day.“This is a busy highway, on a good day we would sell up to 30,000 litres of fuel,” an attendant said.Kenya Independent Petroleum Distributors Association chairman Joseph Karanja yesterday noted players in the petrol business are struggling to sale products.According to Karanja, busy stations in the city and highways can sale about 40,000 litres of diesel and 20,000 litres of super petrol, volumes that have dropped significantly.“Currently the demand is strained. […]