New fuel deal struck

Zimbabwe has clinched credit facilities worth US $15 million from two international banks for the import of fuel, according to the ‘Financial Gazette’. Oil industry sources reportedly told the newspaper that the latest agreements, after a similar lifeline from Libya, were reached with the Cairo-based Afrexim Bank and the PTA Bank, an initiative of countries in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.

They said the two new deals had been brokered by the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ), which has been playing a leading role in fuel procurement since biting shortages hit Zimbabwe two years ago. “They (CBZ) have succeeded once again in negotiating a US $10 million facility for oil that has been extended to Zimbabwe by Afrexim Bank in Cairo, a continental financial institution,” one oil industry executive told the ‘Financial Gazette’. “Also in the last two weeks, they have succeeded in negotiating a US $5 million facility with the PTA Bank, also for fuel procurement.”

Although details of the deals were sketchy, industry executives said they expected the pacts to be signed shortly. Meanwhile, a second fuel consignment is expected in Zimbabwe this week from Libya, which last month signed a US $360 million one-year supply contract. The Libyan fuel, the first consignment of which landed last week, is expected to keep Zimbabwe’s fuel queues at bay for some time, the newspaper said. Zimbabwe, deprived of hard cash because of a boycott of the country by multilateral lenders and because of declining exports, needs about US $40 million a month to import fuel.