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The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum yesterday revealed that a tender has already been awarded to a successful bidder for a government-to-government oil importation deal.

While opposing a suit filed by oil marketing firms, the ministry through its lawyer Hassan Noor claimed that the prayer sought by the oil marketers has already been overtaken by events.

“If the court grants the prayer it would bring confusion into the matter as there was a successful bidder,” the lawyer told the court yesterday.

The oil marketers moved to court seeking to stop the planned importation of fuel on credit from the United Arab Emirates in a government-to-government deal claiming the tender agreement has not been executed.

In the plan, the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) will be handed exclusive rights to import a third of all fuel products into the country.

The ministry claimed that the import, which will come through a credit of six months and a year, will ease a crisis in the foreign exchange market given that oil shipments account for 28 percent of Kenya’s monthly imports.

Nock will ship in 30 percent of Kenya’s Super, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas and which will be used to provide strategic stocks and avert shortage of the commodities mainly due to disruptions globally.