AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Minister for Energy, Dr Medard Kalemani, has given assurance that the country has enough fuel reserve that can meet market demand for more than two months, even as the country continues battling the spread of Coronavirus.
Dr Kalemani issued the assurance on Thursday in Dodoma after holding a meeting with all stakeholders in the sector, insisting that there was no cause for alarm and that all projects that need fuel for implementation will continue to operate.
“The ministry is continuing to coordinate the availability of fuel even if the deadly disease continues persisting…we will continue having fuel for aircrafts, motor vehicles as well as fuel for all economic activities, including implementation of various strategic projects,’’ he noted.
According to Dr Kalemani, the country has enough fuel reserve that could be used for more than two months.
“As I speak, we have 235 million litres of diesel, which can serve the country for the coming 46 days, an excess of 116million litres of petrol which can serve the country for 48 days, and we are still receiving more fuel in all the three ports of Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Mtwara,’’ he said.
On the aviation sector, the minister said there was an excess of 20million litres of fuel which can serve the sector for the next 58 days, and that more litres were being received between today (Thursday) and tomorrow (today) from the ports.
Also, he said there were 5.5million litres of Kerosene.
The minister further insisted that in any case, if the countries where Tanzania buys fuel from like India and United Arab Emirates (UAE) suspend importation of fuel to Tanzania, the ministry was ready to look for other producers of fuel in other countries so that there was enough fuel reserve.
Another strategy to ensure that there was enough fuel in the country, Dr Kalemani said he had formed a team of experts who will determine fuel reserve in the country as well as making close follow ups in all areas where the country has fuel tanks so that an assessment is made to see if the country needs to have enough fuel that can be used for the whole year in an event the situation of the disease worsens.
