Cooking gas imports could soon be procured through a government-to government deal similar to petroleum products, according to the energy and petroleum sector regulator.
Alternatively, importers will bring in products under an Open Tender System (OTS), the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has said.
This it said would allow competitive bidding, with the lowest bidders awarded the contracts to ship products for sale to the wholesale and on-wards to the retail market.
Other products being considered for a centrally coordinated bulk procurement system are Heavy Fuel Oil and bitumen.
Heavy Fuel Oil is a tar-like residual fuel from crude oil distillation, often used as a marine fuel, while bitumen is primarily used in road construction and waterproofing.
The move comes after a Cabinet approval on December 17, for procurement of the three products through a coordinated system, with EPRA tasked with putting in place operating procedures for the industry with the backing of the law.
Yesterday, EPRA said there are considerations to have LPG imported under a G-2-G arrangement after the success of the existing arrangement for petroleum products, which was extended to this year.
EPRA is waiting gazetting of the regulations for the centralised importation and common user facilities, currently at the Attorney General for review, before implementation.
“We have private facilities in Mombasa and we want to convert them to common user, we have told the owners to apply to become common user, they will have a common user tariff approved by ourselves and an agreement, and it will be open access,” EPRA’s petroleum and gas director, Edward Kinyua, said.He spoke at the quarter one 2025 ‘state of the oil industry’ briefing and quarterly sector data release by the Petroleum Institute of East Africa (PIEA) and KCB Bank, in Nairobi.
Investment, Trade and Industry CS Lee Kinyanjui said the G-2-G has been a success, with other countries in the continent tapping into the arrangement.
“G-2-G has worked. It helped us go through a very difficult crisis as as you can see other countries are looking to duplicate,” CS Kinyanjui said.
PIEA data shows LPG demand remained resilient during the fourth quarter of 2024 (October to December), with a 15 per cent growth during the year, compared to an eight per cent increase witnessed in 2023.
Kerosene consumption dropped by 24 per cent as consumers switched to cooking with cleaner LPG.
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