DRC: Oil Companies in the southeast on strike

The oil companies operating in the provinces of the former Katanga and the Kasai region have announced “that they will proceed from this Thursday, August 6, to the cessation of their activities of distribution and storage of petroleum products.”

The announcement came in a press release from the Haut-Katanga section of the Congolese employers’ union, the Fédération des entreprises du Congo (FEC).

Oil companies operating in Katanga, southeastern DRC, and in the central region of Kasai, say they will go on strike from Thursday because of local pricing clamps.

This strike will last “until the publication of new price structures for petroleum products which take into account the current evolution of the parameters of the national and international economic environment”.

These companies believe “that they can no longer continue to work in an environment, which easily favors their decapitalization, under the total indifference of the authority of the sector”, according to a letter dated July 30 addressed to the Minister of the Economy.

In Lubumbashi, the second city of the country, in the mining region of Katanga, the price of gasoline at the pump has been set at 1,390 Congolese francs ($ 0.73) since May, while in Kinshasa, the price per liter is 1,995 Congolese francs (1.05).

For these oil companies, the selling price currently applied in their area “decapitalizes their companies to the point that they are no longer able to renew their stocks”.