The dominance of the top three oil marketers in Kenya weakened between January and March this year, as their combined market share fell below the 50 percent mark amid an onslaught from local dealers.
This is based on data from industry lobby, Petroleum Institute of East Africa (PIEA) which shows that Vivo Energy, Rubis Energy Kenya and TotalEnergies Marketing Kenya held a combined share of 48.53 percent in the period, a drop from the 52.46 percent between January to March last year.
Locally-owned firms such as Hass Petroleum, Galana Energies and Stabex posted a growth in their market shares, eating into the dominance of the big three multinationals.
“Vivo Energy Kenya maintained their top position of the Kenya Petroleum Sales with 18.95 percent, while Rubis Energy Kenya was ranked second with 14.89 percent, while TotalEnergies Marketing Kenya PLC emerged third holding 14.69 percent,” PIEA says in the report released on Wednesday.
The dominance of Vivo Energy slipped from 21.63 percent that it held between January and March last year, while that of Rubis and TotalEnergies was a drop from 15.9 percent and 14.93 percent respectively in the same period.
Local oil marketers have for years struggled to significantly deepen their presence in a market, where the well-oiled multinationals continue to expand through setting new fuel stations and most recently partnerships with local firms.
But in the period between January and March this year, Hass nearly doubled its share to 3.02 percent from 1.61 percent in the same period of last year, making it the biggest gainer of all local oil firms that are licensed to sell fuel in Kenya.
Galana increased its share to 2.97 percent from 2.63 percent in the corresponding period, while Stabex grew its share to 2.62 percent from 2.37 percent.
The weakening grip of Vivo, Rubis and TotalEnergies came despite a 7.1 percent growth in fuel consumption to 1.58 billion litres, from 1.421 billion litres in the period between January and March last year.
The rise in fuel consumption coincided with unchanged prices for three months at Sh176.58, Sh167.06 and Sh151.39 per litre of petrol, diesel and kerosene respectively.
Vivo Energy (retailer of Shell-branded fuels and lubricants), Rubis and TotalEnergies are currently on an expansion spree as the three seek to pull further away from the local competitors.
The expansion has been characterised by opening of new stations in Nairobi and its satellite towns and also along major highways and now partnerships with struggling local oil marketers.
Rubis’ quest to grow its footprint recently got a major boost after the French oil major closed a deal with National Oil Corporation of Kenya.
Under the partnership, Rubis will pump at least Sh6 billion into Noc and then recoup its investment via a profit-sharing model. The Rubis-Noc deal is however more critical to the State-owned firm given that Noc is betting on the partnership to revive its operations.
