Petrotrade invests $15m in service stations

06 May, 2018 - 00:05 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

State owned petroleum firm, Petrotrade (Private) Limited is set to invest US$15 million over the next two years in the construction of 10 service stations across the country.

Acting Petrotrade chief executive officer Godfrey Ncube told The Sunday Mail Business that the company planned to construct five service stations per year.

Already, some of the services stations are at various levels of completion, with the Beitbridge one almost complete.

Mr Ncube said constructing one service station requires US$1,5 million.

“In terms of numbers, we have budgeted for five (service station) sites per year. Each service station costs US$1,5 million to set up and for the total you can multiply by 10 service stations.

“At the moment, we are just finishing off the Beitbridge one, which is now 95 percent complete. We are also doing the Mabvuku service station which is now 50 percent complete.”

Petrotrade also has projects in Warren Park, Epworth (both in Harare), Bindura, Mandamahwe (Chivi) and Masvingo.

The company said it has secured the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Bindura while in Epworth, Warren Park and Masvingo, they were at procurement stage.

Mr Ncube said they have just secured land for the Mhandamabwe project.

He said they were constructing the service stations primarily to provide fuel in areas that have generally been ignored by some of the country’s top fuel retailers.

“We want to bring fuel closer to the people by investing in areas where the traditional players are not represented.

“In Epworth for example, there are many people who live there and require fuel but there are no service stations. You remember that some people there were burnt by the fuel they were keeping in their homes.

Currently, Petrotrade has a distribution network of over 80 service stations, including dealer sites and coupon redemption sites across the country.

Petrotrade, a unit of State owned National Oil and Infrastructure Company (NOIC), is responsible for marketing and distributing petroleum products in Zimbabwe.

The company trades in paraffin, lubricants, diesel, petrol, and jet A1 fuels.

In addition, the petroleum company also provides procurement, tank calibration, and transportation services.

The firm was founded in 2010 following the restructuring of the then National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim).

The restructuring exercise created two seperate entities — the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noic) and Petrotrade.

Petrotrade recently participated at the 2018 Zimbabwe International Trade Fair with a view to explore investment opportunities and get feedback from consumers.

The petroleum and logistics firm has also invested $11 million in the construction of a shopping mall in Beitbridge. It is expected that the shopping complex will consist of retail shops, accommodation facilities, office and parking space and a service station.

The entire project is expected to be complete by next year.

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