Govt insists French fuel deal still on

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Under the fuel procurement deal, the French bank provides the state-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) with cash to import fuel. In return President Robert Mugabe’s virtually broke government uses earnings from Zimbabwe’s lucrative nickel mining industry to repay BNP Paribas.
Zimbabwe’s giant nickel producer, Bindura Nickel Corporation, has pledged a percentage of its export earnings to meet the loan repayments.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono, a key architect of the fuel deal, at the weekend told ZimOnline that the deal was still in place, adding that the country was set to receive 37 million litres of fuel supplied under the arrangement.
Gono, who refused to answer more questions pertaining to the fuel supply deal, would not say when exactly the fuel shipment he said was on its way to Zimbabwe would arrive in the country.
“The fuel is coming but the authorities at NOCZIM can confirm that,” was all Gono would say.
NOCZIM chief executive officer, Zvinechimwe Churu, also told state media at the weekend that Zimbabwe had over the past week taken delivery of 25.7 million litres of fuel worth US$15 million, which was supplied under the deal with BNP Paribas.
Previous fuel supply deals with oil suppliers from Libya and Kuwait collapsed after Harare failed to pay.
And there was little evidence at the weekend that Zimbabwe was getting any substantial supplies of diesel or petrol, with long and winding queues of motorists at the few garages – mostly operated by small companies who source their own fuel – that were selling fuel in Harare and other cities.
Fuel queues had disappeared in most cities and towns in Zimbabwe following the deregulation of the energy sector last year.
But the government has re-imposed controls on the fuel industry ordering suppliers two weeks ago to lower pump prices of diesel and petrol to levels fuel firms say are below cost and would condemn them to financial ruin. – ZimOnline