Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise (EPSE) has submitted proposal allowing the government to join the fuel retail market, Fortune reported.

EPSE has submitted the proposal to the Ministry of Finance and Development (MoFED), stated Demelash Alemu, assistant to the chief executive officer of the Enterprise.

The Enterprise has identified 60 of the 130 locations it plans to establish gas stations across the country, according to Fortune.

The construction of the gas stations could start in one year and forty gas stations will be located in Addis Ababa, according to Kebede Chane, Minister of Trade said.

EPSE is expecting the budget to come from MoFED because it still had no budget allocated. In the mean time, Addis Ababa City Administration had already been asked plots of lands for the construction of some of the stations, said Demelash.

EPSE has a monopoly on supplying and buying fuel from four international suppliers including the Sudanese Sudan Petroleum Corporation and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC). However, it’s not yet clear as to, either EPSE or a new body that will undertake the retail business, said Demelash.

Currently, there are 654 gas stations owned Oil Libya, Total, National Oil Ethiopia (NOC), Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum (YBP) together control 89% of the total fuel distributionbusiness in Ethiopia and the 11% is covered by Kobil, Dalol Oil S.C, Wadi Alsundus, and TAF Oil S.C.

EPSE is an amalgamation of the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise (EPE) and the National Petroleum Depot Administration (NPDA) and was established in 2012 by the Council of Ministers Regulation No.265/2012.

Source: Addis Fortune