Société d'Entreposage Pétrolier au Burundi (Burundi Petroleum Storage Company: SEP Burundi), is a private company that operates a fuel storage depot near the
Port of Bujumbura
The Port of Bujumbura is a port on Lake Tanganyika serving Bujumbura, the largest city in Burundi. It is the largest port on the lake and handles about 80% of Burundi's imports and exports. Constructed in 1959 and expanded in the early 1990s, the ...
in Burundi.
Location
SEP (Société d'entreposage de pétrole) operates oil storage facilities near the
Port of Bujumbura
The Port of Bujumbura is a port on Lake Tanganyika serving Bujumbura, the largest city in Burundi. It is the largest port on the lake and handles about 80% of Burundi's imports and exports. Constructed in 1959 and expanded in the early 1990s, the ...
.
The north jetty of the harbor is long, of which is used as an oil terminal.
The oil depot owned by SEP is about to the north of the port.
The depot is connected to the quay by an oil pipeline.
SEP also owned an oil depot in
Gitega
Gitega (), formerly Kitega, is the political capital of Burundi. Located in the centre of the country, in the Burundian central plateau roughly east of Bujumbura, the largest city and former political capital, Gitega is the country's fourth la ...
.
History
The ''Société d’Entreposage Pétrolier au Burundi'' (SEP-Burundi) was created in 1967 to enable supply of petroleum products to Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
As of 1982 petrol products were imported by five companies: Finam Mobil, Texaco, Shell and BP.
These companies jointly owned SEP Burundi.
In 1983 and 1986 the
Ntahangwa River
The Ntahangwa River is a river in Burundi that flows through the city of Bujumbura..
Course
The river forms in the east of Bujumbura Rural Province and flows in a generally east–west direction into Bujumbura Mairie Province and the city of Buj ...
flooded Bujumbura.
Houses were destroyed in the Buyenzi quarter, and damage was done to the stocks of SEP,
COGERCO,
RAFINA
Rafina () is a suburban port town located on the eastern coast of Attica in Greece. It has a population of 14,620 inhabitants (2021 census). Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rafina-Pikermi, of which it is the ...
and the Port of Bujumbura.
In August 2019 the Council of Ministers, chaired by
Pierre Nkurunziza
Pierre Nkurunziza (18 December 1964 – 8 June 2020) was a Burundian politician who served as the ninth president of Burundi for almost 15 years from August 2005 until his death in June 2020.
A member of the Hutu, Hutu ethnic group, Nkurunziza ...
, President of Burundi, decided to rehabilitate the SEP facility in close collaboration with
Interpetrol, now the sole shareholder and manager of SEP-Burundi.
The port was damaged in 2023/2024 by floods that cause the waters of Lake Tanganyika to rise.
The oil jetty had been rehabilitated, but was submerged, and the pipelines had to be reinstalled.
Presidential decree 100/034 of 20 February 2024 created the
Société Pétroliere du Burundi (SOPEBU) a publicly owned company, under the Ministry of Energy.
The company was to organize, coordinate and centralize Burundi's orders for oil products, establish a physical stock that would last at least three months, import oil and gas products and distribute oil products fairly to different parts of the counmtry, among other duties.
See also
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List of companies of Burundi
The Republic of Burundi is a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of Southeast Africa.
During the colonial period most large companies were owned and run by Europeans, and operated under concessions from the colonial government.
A ...
*
Economy of Burundi
The economy of Burundi is $6.75 billion by gross domestic product as of 2025, being heavily dependent on agriculture, which accounts for 32.9% of gross domestic product as of 2008. Burundi itself is a landlocked country lacking resources, and with ...
References
Sources
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{{refend
Companies of Burundi
1967 establishments in Burundi