Petroleum consumption hits record high on low pump prices

A petrol station attendant fuels a car. Petrol pump price stood at high of Sh110 in January 2014 before falling to Sh102 in December. PHOTO | FILE  

By NEVILLE OTUKI, notuki@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Consumption of petroleum rose to 1.5 billion litres last year up from 1.2 billion litres in 2014.
• The growth was mainly driven by private cars that accounted for more than a quarter of the total consumption.
• Falling fuel prices have brought more vehicles on the roads, causing heavy congestion that has in turn increased the volume of fuel consumed.

Kenya’s consumption of petroleum hit a record high last year as motorists took advantage of...
lower pump prices to fill their tanks and keep their cars on the road, newly released industry data shows.

Consumption of petroleum rose to 1.5 billion litres last year up from 1.2 billion litres in 2014 or a 25 per cent growth — the highest rate ever — according to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

The growth was mainly driven by private cars that accounted for more than a quarter of the total consumption.

“Consumption of super petrol has significantly increased as more people get their cars on the road, encouraged by the psychological comfort that fuel is now cheaper, hence more road trips,” said Edward Kinyua, the acting director of petroleum at the ERC.

Falling fuel prices have brought more vehicles on the roads, causing heavy congestion that has in turn increased the volume of fuel consumed.

Urban motorists have often cited a rickety public transport system that is mainly controlled by cartels and even criminal gangs to justify their use of private cars for daily commute.

Previous atcrippling traffic jams during peak morning and evening hours.

This has partly eroded the capital city’s appeal, and weakened its ranking in global living standard surveys.tempts to introduce mass transport solutions like park-and-ride, where motorists leave their vehicles outside the city centre and use high-capacity buses or trains to the city centre, have all flopped. Nairobi, which accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the national traffic, has in recent months been experiencing

Consumption of diesel, used to power trucks, buses, vans and factories, hit 2.4 billion litres from two billion in 2014, representing a rise of 15 per cent.

The ERC, which caps maximum retail prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene, last year made multiple cuts on pump prices in response to tanking global oil prices.

Last year, petrol prices stood at Sh92 a litre in January in Nairobi and Sh90 in December while diesel retailed at Sh83 at the beginning of the year but had dropped to Sh78 in December.

Petrol pump price stood at high of Sh110 in January 2014 before falling to Sh102 in December while diesel retailed at Sh104 at the start of the year and Sh14 less in December.

Kenya now imports all its refined petroleum products after closing down the country’s only refinery three years ago.

READ: Cooking gas prices now drop to a four-year low