Malawi News

Nocma says 19.2m litres of fuel arriving this weekend

Nocma says 19.2m litres of fuel arriving this weekend

The National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) has said 19.2 million litres of fuel are expected to arrive in the country this weekend.

Malawi uses around 845,000 litres of petrol and 834,000 litres of diesel per day translating to 11 and a half days cover if the quantities mentioned indeed arrive.

LIKAMBALE —We are doing all we can

In an interview Friday Nocma spokesperson Raymond Likambale said 6.6 million litres were in transit to Malawi as of Friday.

An addition, 12.6 million litres are being loaded.

“We are doing all that we can to make sure that we return to normalcy. You might wish to know that we are currently loading from the ports of the Der-es Salam and Nacala. Since November 1, 2024 we have hoarded in about 26 million liters,” he said.

Likambale said the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) loan which the government paid on September 28 2024 actually created room for Malawi to import around 40.8 million litres of fuel.

“And the figures that I’m giving you today are actually part of that. There is about 14 million litres still to be accessed from that facility,” Likambale said.

Asked on claims that over 200 trucks commissioned by the Company have been delayed due to missing Letters of Credit (LCs) from Malawian authorities, Likambale described such claim as untrue.

“Malawians might wish to know that Nocma nominates trucks based on volumes available, and, therefore, you might want to ask those that say they are idle in these ports whether they were nominated by Nocma or our colleagues that are also importing fuel into the country,” Likambale said.

Malawi is grappling with erratic fuel supply that has lasted for a month now, leading to black-market traders selling the commodity at as high as K10,000 per litre for petrol which goes at K2,530 at the official price.