FORTUNE+ VIDEO SPONSORED CONTENTS ADVERTORIALS FORTUNE AUDIO Fortune Careers TRADE AFRICA Election 2026 New TIME REMAINING UNTIL ETHIOPIA’S NATIONAL ELECTION 0Days 0Hours 0Minutes 0Seconds

Fortune Logo

An aerial visualisation of a fuel queue winding in Addis Abeba last week did more than capture a city stuck in traffic. It uncovered a capital stalled by scarcity. Stretching a gruelling 2.1Km around the Ambassador Theatre area, the line of vehicles, from buses and minibuses to private SUVs and trucks, snaked through some of the city’s most prominent landmarks in a surreal procession of delay and frustration. The digital map traced motorists’ desperate path from a fuel pump behind what was once the Harambie Hotel, past Ambassador Park, the Zewditu Memorial Hospital and the Sheraton Addis, before looping toward the Filwuha thermal baths and circling back to the Total gas station, one of the 153 stations in the city. In those lost hours on the asphalt, a chronic fuel shortage, particularly of Diesel, became a visible measure of the productivity drained from a city forced to idle while waiting to fill its tankers.


Behind that urban tableau sits a fuel trade of staggering scale. The Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise (EPSE) imports and distributes nearly four billion tons of petroleum products, estimated to cost over four billion dollars. In the 2025 fiscal year, its revenue from contracts with customers surged sharply to 457.35 billion Br, from 259.37 billion Br a year earlier. Cost of sales climbed even faster, to 496.14 billion Br from 246.09 billion Br, revealing the magnitude of the trade, while a 40.4 billion Br claim from the fuel price stabilisation fund helped the Enterprise post a gross profit of 1.61 billion Br and net profit of 1.06 billion Br. Inventories more than doubled to 34.54 billion Br by year-end, while receivables from the fuel price stabilisation fund ballooned to 183.56 billion Br.




PUBLISHED ON Mar 28,2026 [ VOL 26 , NO 1352]

[ratemypost]


Related Posts

[ssba-buttons]

Put your comments here

N.B: A submit button will appear once you fill out all the required fields.

Editors' Pick

Exclusive Interviews

State Enterprises from Oracles to Apprentices

Dec 22 , 2024 . By TIZITA SHEWAFERAW

Charged with transforming colossal state-owned enterprises into modern and competitiv...

Agenda

Rising Costs, Inflation Threaten Insurance Industry

Aug 18 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO

Although predictable Yonas Zerihun's job in the ride-hailing service is not immune to...

Agenda

BREWING DISCONTENT

Jul 28 , 2024 . By TIZITA SHEWAFERAW

Unhabitual, perhaps too many, Samuel Gebreyohannes, 38, used to occasionally enjoy a couple of beers at breakfast. However, he recently swit...

Fortune News

Electric Vehicle Push Leaves Investors in the Lurch

Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO

Investors who rely on tractors, trucks, and field vehicles for commuting, transporting commodities, and f...

Commentaries

Red Gold Makes the Case for Smarter Agri Business Strategy

Volcanic soils, cool nights and temperate days have given strawberry growers the cond...

Africa Key to Sustained Global Growth

More than 50 years after decolonisation, the West still regards Africa as a supportin...

Fineline

Leaders of the National . . .

Leaders of the National Election Board are in a charm offensive mood, of a sort. Last week, they organised a rare tour for members of the me...

When the country’s most. . .

When the country's most senior diplomats and envoys return back to their posts after two-week debriefings, they leave behind a point or two...

Editorial

Tax Push Tests How Much Pain Taxpayers Can Bear

May 23 , 2026

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team has spent weeks in Addis Abeba conducting t...

T-Bills Trap Begins in the Federal Government's Own Budget

May 16 , 2026

The federal budget tells a troubling story about inflation, debt and reform. The prob...

Every Encounter with the State Should Not Become an Invoice

May 9 , 2026

The Ethiopian state appears to have discovered a fiscal instrument that is politicall...

National Dialogue Has Everything But the Trust It Needs

May 2 , 2026

By the time Ethiopia's National Dialogue Commission (ENDC) reached the end of its fir...

Gallery

Parliament Approves New Cabinet Members

Oct 6 , 2021

Parliament Approves New Cabinet, Incorporates Opposition Leaders Lawmakers have approved today the nominations of 22 ministers, including three opposition leaders. Two MPs have voted against, while 12 abstained...

2020 in Posterity

Jan 5 , 2021

TIGRAY VOTES DESPITE "NULL & VOID" THREAT

Sep 9 , 2020

IN-PICTURE: LAUREATE'S RECEPTION  

Dec 14 , 2019

PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) at a Gala Dinner Called for the Awarding of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize

May 6 , 2019

Faces, Voices of Addis Abeba

Apr 26 , 2019

Sunday With Eden

A Ball, A Father, A Life-time of Memory

Football was never merely a game in our household. It was ritual, language and affect...

Love, Not Blood, Makes a Family

There are moments that quietly expose the prejudices buried inside society. They appear in ordinary places, a hospital corridor, a waiting r...

Life Matters

When Problem-Solving Fails Because the Shape Looks Different

We like to think of ourselves as pattern-recognition machines. From the moment the day begins until sleep...

The Hidden Limits Behind Unlimited Data Plans

A few weeks ago, I found myself reaching for a mobile data package after our home Wi-Fi went down. The el...