Tanzania: 2 BP top brass arrested

EWURA Director General, Haruna Masebu

Two top executives of BP (Tanzania) Limited, the oil company that has earned notoriety for being the most stubborn of the sector players who fuelled the recent fuel crisis, were arrested in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

They were granted bail and are due to appear in court tomorrow to answer charges related to economic sabotage.

The Guardian on Sunday confirmed the arrests and pending court appearance through impeccable independent sources, after Police contacts weren’t forthcoming on the subject. On Friday, EWURA Director General, Haruna Masebu, announced the regulator’s decision to suspend BP from selling petrol, diesel and kerosene for three months.

EWURA also issued serious warnings to three other oil firms for their involvement in withholding fuel from the market.

In his statement, Masebu said the decision was reached during an EWURA management meeting, noting that his office had also directed that through the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), the BP Chief executive be taken to court.

Masebu told a press conference that BP (T) Ltd chief executive had violated the Petroleum Act of 2008 by refusing to sell fuel at its filling stations, a position he maintained until Thursday. Contacted by phone yesterday, Masebu told The Guardin on Sunday that he was not aware of the arrests, only informing us that the matter was in the hands of the relevant authorities.

On Tuesday, this week, the Chief Secretary, Philemon Luhanjo summoned top BP officials at State House to discuss the company's refusal to sell fuel at the new price issued by the regulator, EWURA. After a two-hour discussion, the BP officials asked the government, which is one of the shareholders, to grant them permission to sell fuel at a loss price as directed by the regulator, but the government strongly decline to grant the request.

"We are just employees who have no authority to sell oil at the price below our importation cost...only shareholders have the power to grant such a permission,, but when we asked one of our shareholders (government) to grant us the permission to sell fuel at a loss price, our request was rejected, " one of the officials from BP told The Guardian on Sunday.

According to BP officials, the cost of importing fuel per litre was 2039, higher than the new price of Sh 2004, issued by the regulator, last week.

The EWURA Director General said BP (T) Ltd would be only allowed to continue selling jet fuel since EWURA had no mandate over the product’s price.

Other companies which were reprimanded are Oil Com (T) Ltd. Camel (T) Ltd and Engen (T) Ltd.

The trio had defied an order from EWURA to sell the indicative fuel at prices resulted from a new formula aimed at reducing fuel prices, only to be defied by major fuel importers.

The move caused fuel scarcity countrywide as people were forced queue for several hours at petrol station waiting to purchase fuel.

Meanwhile, the government yesterday warned oil dealers who decline to respect the country’s rule of law saying that it will not hesitate to take legal measures in future to all those who will not comply with the government orders.

Minister for Energy and Minerals William Ngeleja sounded the warning in Dodoma yesterday when tabling the emergency power plan aimed at addressing power crisis facing the nation. He said that the country’s laws were the ones which enabled the investors to carry out their business in the country thus they were obliged to abide by the laws.

He said that the country allow investors to invest in the country in order to supplement the government efforts and not to ruin the country economy.

“If there were no these laws they could not be able to invest in our country thus although they have their rights of doing business but they are also obliged to obey the laws,” Ngeleja said. He said that the oil dealers were supposed to obey the order issued by Ewura since it is the government institution.

Ewura decisions are government decision thus failure to obey it means disobeying the government.

“We shall not go back on this …I commend Ewura for its decision of suspending business license of BP Company for three months for failure to comply with its order of releasing oil. He said that BP can appeal to Fair Competition Tribunal instead of lobbying through some Tanzanians.

He said that the government was taking measures to ensure that the country do not enter into fuel crisis.

Ngeleja said that the government has provided a lisence to COPEC Limited to import fuel on behalf of Tanzanians. “COPEC Limited is going to compete with private oil dealers why should they be worried,” queried Ngeleja.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY