PUMA invests in gas

RYAN CHIGOCHE

PUMA Energy Zimbabwe will start distributing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the first quarter of next year, as it taps into the growing demand for the energy source.

The company’s head of Africa, Fadi Mitri, said PUMA Zimbabwe would spend about US$10m in the project in the next five years.

“LPG is a very big avenue for us. I expect our first gas distribution to start in the first quarter of 2023. Across PUMA we are investing a minimum of US$60 million but in Zimbabwe a minimum of US$10m over the next five years,” Mitri said.

Mitri said another avenue with massive opportunities for the company was in the lubricants and solar energy space.

Currently, the company’s lubricant products are manufactured in South Africa for distribution in the Southern African area.

The company is working on a plan to improve lubricant availability as well as obtaining market share locally with a target to increase lubricant sales at a rate of one litre of lubricant for every hundred litres of fuel sold.

“On the lubricants side local production is not something that makes commercial sense today because you will need to bring the raw materials from a refinery which is outside of Africa which means you have to bring it by ship,” Mitri said.

“There are a lot of quality issues when you have a supply chain that is so long. So, what we prefer doing is blending somewhere in Africa in Durban or Dar es Salam and then transport the lubricants by truck that allows us to have a very high quality African blended lubricant formulated in Switzerland.”

The investment in LPG comes at a time when PUMA was also investing about US$15m in expansion projects.

PUMA is expanding its retail network to 72 stations with the newly opened Highlands Park station in the capital in partnership with Terrace Africa.

Speaking at the recent official opening of the new station PUMA Zimbabwe managing director Daniel Duffau said it was the company’s ambition to open seven new stations annually over the next five years.

Since the start of operations in Zimbabwe in 2013 PUMA Energy has grown into one of the market leaders in the distribution of petroleum projects across the country.