Gas prices remain high in Ethiopia despite international market prices plummet

ESAT News (March 1, 2016)

Gas prices in Ethiopia remain high despite the international market shows all time low in crude oil prices for the past several weeks. The prices in Ethiopia stayed high, partly the reason taxi drivers went on a two day strike.

Experts in the field say the international market showed a 40% decrease in prices while Ethiopian authorities brought the prices by only 12%.

The manager of the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise attribute the high prices to cost of transportations and port fees. Tadesse Hailemariam told reporters in Addis that due to the high costs of transportation and port fees, the price of gas will remain high in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia spends 1 billion dollars annually for the import of oil and buys most of it from neighboring Sudan. The country spends almost the same amount of money on port fees.