TotalEnergies fuel award: publish the bid paper

Statement by the Shadow Minister of International Relations and Trade

1. WINDHOEK, On 21 September 2026 the Minister of Industries, Mines and Energy announced that TotalEnergies, through its trading arm Totsa, will be the sole supplier of petrol and diesel to Namibia from November 2026 to January 2027, after a competitive bidding round.

2. The Namibian reported the award covers 345.3 million litres, with discounts of 61 cents a litre on diesel and 71 cents a litre on petrol, and a claimed saving of about N$220.5 million against the current arrangement. NAMPA reported the same designation and put the split at roughly 246.9 million litres of diesel and 98.4 million litres of petrol.

3. Vitol was made sole supplier for July to September, and that arrangement was then extended through October. On 10 September the Ministry told Reuters it would not be renewed beyond October. From 1 November Namibia will have a new sole supplier, not an open multi-supplier market.

4. Competition among four bidders is better than a quiet extension by press statement. A discount to the basic fuel price is better than a premium. That is not the same as saying the architecture has changed. One foreign trading group will still import the country's petrol and diesel for three more months.

5. The Minister has since confirmed to The Namibian that TotalEnergies, Nasan Energies, Vitol's Vivo Energy and Puma bid, and that the state oil company, Namcor, did not. The public still cannot see the bid scores, the price each bidder offered, the evaluation record, or the contract instrument that will bind supply from 1 November. A recorded video message is not a gazette. A saving announced by the Ministry is not a pump-price cut Namibians can verify at Walvis Bay or in Katutura.

6. This is how a temporary measure turns into the architecture. First an emergency sole supply. Then a one-month extension. Now another three-month sole supply under the banner of competition. The Minister has told The Namibian the tender will run every three months. Each step is called practical. Each one keeps the country's fuel import decision one step further from a paper Parliament can read.

7. I welcome that November was opened to a bid. I do not accept that Namibians must take the result on trust. Within seven days the Minister should publish the invitation record, the evaluation record with each bidder's score, and the price each of the four bidders offered. He should table the TotalEnergies / Totsa supply instrument and its price basis in the National Assembly. He should also state in writing whether sole-supplier rounds remain the standing method after January 2027.

8. The cost still lands on people who were never in the room. A long-distance truck driver on the Walvis Bay road, a taxi driver in Katutura, and a fishing crew in Lüderitz pay for fuel under rules they cannot inspect. They are entitled to know who supplies their fuel, at what discount, under what authority, and why the other bidders lost.

9. Questions to the Minister on this country's fuel supply, including on Vitol, have been placed on notice in this House. The Ministry announced this award by recorded message rather than by tabling the instrument. Namibians deserve the bid paper, the contract, and a Minister who answers Parliament before the next sole round is locked.

Namibia is all we have
Namibia is not for sale
We must and can save it!

Back to rodneycloete.com.na · Earlier on this site: Statement on the extension of the four month Vitol deal (10 September 2026)