(Business in Cameroon) - During a media appearance last May 31,  the Minister of Water and Energy (Minee), Gaston Eloundou Essomba (photo) stated that this year, Cameroon has put in place a new "mechanisms for the sustainable supply of the [oil] market in order to minimize costs and possible shortfalls which would continue to expose the State's treasury."

"This mechanism consists of selecting [by international tender] four traders that will, for a given period, ship large quantities of petroleum products on Cameroonian waters for sale to local marketers and importers. The main selection criterion is the competitive level of premiums,” the Minee said.

According to the government member, before last December 23^rd, "traders were delivering petroleum products to Cameroon with bonuses that reached record levels of $128 per ton for super and $176 per ton for diesel."

"The premiums currently practiced are $38 per ton for super and $45 per ton for diesel. This mechanism generates significant budgetary savings for Cameroon. Our estimates put them at 150 billion CFA francs annually,” he added.

The minister explained in the framework of the new mechanisms, Cameroon selected Nigerian Sahara Energy as the main bidder and three traders as next immediate winners. They are Vitol (a Swiss company trading petroleum products), Addax Energy (Swiss) and Petra Energy SA (Swiss). The condition imposed by Cameroon on this trio is to match the price level of the main bidder. Between February and May 2020, Sahara Energy had delivered 300 million litres of fuel on Cameroonian soil.

Sylvain Andzongo