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Kenya’s energy regulator has granted Taifa Gas, owned by Rostam Aziz, a Tanzanian business tycoon, the license to set up a cooking gas plant and storage facilities at the Mombasa port.
Kenya’s energy regulator has granted Taifa Gas, owned by Rostam Aziz, a Tanzanian business tycoon, the license to set up a cooking gas plant and storage facilities at the Mombasa port. It is the largest LPG supply company in Tanzania and has been feeding the Kenyan retail market via road. The announcement was made by Epra Director-General Daniel Kiptoo. The Kenyan cooking gas market is reportedly controlled by Mombasa-based tycoon Jaffer. The entry of Taifa Gas is expected to challenge its monopoly.
Rostam Aziz was ranked the first-dollar billionaire in Tanzania by Forbes in 2013. Aziz had offered to build a 30,000-tonne liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) handling facility in Kenya in 2017 to which the Kenyan authorities allegedly did not respond. The proposal was according to reports discussed during the visit of the Tanzanian President to Kenya in 2021. The approval for the entry of Taifa Gas into Kenya is in line with the trade deal agreed upon by Kenya’s former President Uhuru Kenyatta and Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu in 2021. The earlier estimated cost of the project is US $130 million.
Now, with Rostam Aziz entering Kenya’s LPG market, and the resultant competition between the companies, the consumers may stand to benefit. Entry of Taifa Gas facility provides Kenya an opportunity to lower cooking gas costs in the absence of price controls The cost of handling and evacuating cooking gas from the ships to the mainland is expected to come down enabling dealers to transfer the cost reliefs to consumers.
Both Mohamed Jaffer and Rostam Aziz enjoy political clout. Aziz has served as MP and treasurer of the Tanzanian ruling party — Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
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Taifa Gas proposes to build the 30,000-tonne Kenya facility at the Special Economic Zone in Dongo Kundu, near the port of Mombasa. was earlier (Sh16.25 billion). Mohamed Jaffer’s firm Africa Gas and Oil Ltd (AGOL) also operates a multi-billion shilling facility in the same area. Its storage capacity is 25,000 tonnes of LPG.
