Mat North Correspondent

Bulawayo based fuel company, Allied Petroleum is set to open a new service station in Hwange, Matabeleland North Province, next month as it intensifies its expansion drive in the region and beyond.

This service station becomes the company’s third and the second in Matabeleland North province after Bulawayo and Halfway House in Gwayi respectively.

Allied Petroleum Chief Executive Officer, Tapfuma Chikutu said the company will soon open a fourth service station in Bulawayo.

“Our target is to have operations throughout the country although we are starting with Matabeleland and Bulawayo Provinces since charity begins at home,” he said.

“We will also open another service station in Bulawayo before year end.”

He said Government has created enabling environment to promote endogenous business people.

“The policies currently in place allow indigenous people to venture into the fuel sector which at some point was dominated by multinational companies such as Shell, BP and Total among others.

“What Government has done is good for locals and our company is now spreading like veld fire and soon we will be in every town. We appreciate the enabling business environment created by Government,” he said.

Mr Chikutu revealed that the company was founded in 2019 in the midst of serious fuel shortages, and was driven by those shortages to open Allied Petroleum so as to eliminate the fuel shortages within the country. He said that their motto is that they will never run out of fuel and ensure that they will never at any time run out of petroleum products.

According to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA), the petroleum sub-sector in Zimbabwe comprises private and State-owned companies. The prices of fuels are market-driven but monitored through a pricing formula that takes into account all the associated costs.

Zimbabwe imports 100 percent of its petroleum fuel requirements through pipeline, rail and road.