Zimbabwe, France kick off fuel deal

Zimbabwe has taken delivery of 25.7 million liters of fuel worth 15 million U.S. dollars under the 50 million dollars deal which the country recently signed with French bank BNP Paribas, an official newspaper reported.

The deal, which will benefit the public and private sectors, was expected to help address the prevailing petrol and diesel price distortions on the local market, as all beneficiaries would access the product at uniform prices, said the Sunday Mail.

Zimbabwe's National Oil Company chief executive officer Zvinechimwe Churu said the last portions of the consignment of the around 8 million liters of petrol and the around 17 million liters of diesel were still being pumped from the central Mozambican port of Beira by late Saturday afternoon.

He said the supply, the first under the deal, was sourced from Independent Petroleum Group of Kuwait, which secured the tender ahead of several other aspiring suppliers.

Although supplies would be channeled to the public and private sectors, priority would be given to critical sectors of the economy such as agriculture and transport.

He also insisted that the parastatal would sell diesel at 320 Zimbabwean dollars (1.28 U. S. dollars) and petrol at 335 Zimbabwean dollars (1.34 U.S. dollars) per liter, a price structure the oil industry and the government recently agreed on.

In May this year, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and BNP Paribas signed an agreement under which the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe would import fuel for all players in the economy.

The facility, which runs on the rails of the National Economic Development Priority Program, is meant to address the intermittent fuel shortages Zimbabwe has been facing over the past seven years owing to foreign currency constraints.

Source: Xinhua