| Home | Politics | Human Rights | Water | Economy | Education | Sci & Tech | Culture | Sport |
23 July, 2007
Kobil Ethiopia, a new entrant into the nation’s oil industry and a subsidiary of the Kenya-based Kenol Kobil, is poised to capture 10 percent of the country’s steadily growing oil market during the next fiscal year, just in the wake of a few months' experience here, Yoav Zilber, general manager of the company told The Reporter on Wednesday.
The company started operation in the country only two months ago, and plans to be one of the major players of the nation’s growing industry in the coming years, according to the general manager. “Some ten years ago, we were ranked as the eighth major oil retailer in Kenya. Presently we are the top one in that market. We do have similar experience in Rwanda, and the other African countries we set foot in,” the manager said. “In the long term, our plan is to become a pan-Africa Company.”
Kobil signed a deal with Shell Ethiopia to buy out 81 fuel stations and two depots in Addis Ababa and the regions outside last February, and presently managed to own 63 of the stations and the depots.
Currently, the company is actively operating at 50 of the 63 stations it acquired from Shell for a few hundreds of millions of birr. Kobil plans to construct some 10 additional stations next year, according to YOAV.
The company has already started re-branding the fuel stations it acquired, on which it projected to invest a “few millions of birr”.
“Currently the profit margin of the oil industry in Ethiopia is very minimal – almost ten times lower than that of Kenya,” the manager said. He, however, noted that the company’s investment in Ethiopia targets the potential market expected to significantly expand in the future.
“We invested here looking at the future. We strongly believe that the market in Ethiopia will considerably grow along with the economy, to the extent that it will be attracting investors engaged in the sector,” Yoav said.
Currently, Kenol Kobil has subsidiaries in six African countries, including Ethiopia, while it is also trading with a number of other nations in the continent.
Ethiopia’s oil market has topped two billion liters in the 2006/07 fiscal year, with the consumption of the major components - namely regular (benzene), gas oil, jet fuel, kerosene and fuel oil – reaching 1.6 billion litters, according to industry figures obtained by The Reporter.
Presently Shell Ethiopia, Total Ethiopia, National Oil Corporation (NOC), and Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum (YBP) are the active operators in the domestic oil industry, where Shell and Total enjoy the chunk of the market share estimated at 34 percent and 35 percent respectively. Although it has been registered lately as the latest entrant into the industry, the Sudan-based Nile Petroleum has not yet launched fuel retailing operation in the country.
Presently, there are a total of just over one thousand fuel stations across the country. The number is expected to markedly pick up in the coming few years, with the industry witnessing new entrants and expansions of the existing ones.
By Hayal Alemayehu - Ethiopian Reporter