The situation is tense between the State and the tankers, to the point that a shortage of fuel could be envisaged on the Big Island.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo,
According to two concordant sources, the ship supposed to supply Madagascar with fuel for the month of May did not leave the Sultanate of Oman at the end of last week. Negotiations between the government and the oil companies are still ongoing to resolve the situation. If no solution is found by then, Madagascar could be short of fuel in the medium term.
In question, the negotiations on the new structure of prices at the pump which have not yet succeeded, as well as the non-payment of arrears of the State towards oil companies. Partial reimbursement from the authorities is not sufficient in the current situation, since oil companies are facing significant cash flow losses, according to the IMF report of the first review of the ECF (Extended Credit Facility) programme. At the end of 2021, still according to this same IMF report, the arrears amounted to 250 billion ariary. The Malagasy authorities nevertheless continued to obtain supplies, in the last quarter of 2021, to operate Jirama power plants, indicate several national newspapers.
” However, the country can hold on to its reserves for about twenty days. “Said a source close to the oil sector. For Jean-Baptiste Olivier, the director general of the Malagasy Office of Hydrocarbons (OMH), the duration of the cargo journey at sea is relatively short. ” It takes 10 to 12 days to travel, he reacts. The question of the departure of a boat for May does not therefore arise yet. Moreover, the Malagasy authorities can still find another supplier, or the boat can postpone its departure. As it stands, the Big Island’s fuel supply is in any case on hold. Alain Théodore Soumoudronga, the secretary general of the Oil Tankers Association (GPM), indicated that he did not wish to react.
What could cause a shortage of fuel in the economic slump that Madagascar has been experiencing for a few months, in particular because of galloping inflation of basic necessities (oil, sugar, flour, etc.) without wages having increased since 2020?
For Ketakandriana Rafitoson, the executive director of Transparency International Madagascar, all scenarios are to be feared. ” Whether it’s a price hike or a shortage, the whole country comes to a standstill, the queue at service stations, the black market… and people’s anger that goes explode. The Jirama [la compagnie nationale d’eau et d’électricité] will no longer be able to function to begin with, then everything that depends on it, in particular hospitals. Imagine for example a new Covid wave this winter [juin-juillet-août]. The Malagasy are already on the verge of apoplexy with the rise in prices “.
Asked, the Malagasy authorities have not yet reacted.