From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 1, March 2003.

Coconut oil, which Tongans and other Pacific Islanders have used primarily for cooking and as body oil, could become a secure source of fuel to power their vehicles, according to Tonga’s Energy Officer, Tevita Tukunga.

Tevita believes that coconut oil is Tonga’s hope for the future, and foresees small island communities with power generators, motor boats and motor vehicles running on coconut oil. “It will be cheaper, and environmentally friendly.” Tevita added that the exhausted fumes from motor vehicles would smell like roasted coconut.  

Tevita believes that coconut oil as a source of fuel for cars, would be most suitable with Tonga’s land tenure system. “It can be organised that a person would drive into a gas station with a load of coconuts and then come out with so many litres of coconut oil.” He said that one coconut could produce a half a litre of coconut oil. Therefore to fuel a 40 litre tank would require 80 coconuts.

Tevita recommends that Tonga must do two things to secure a supply of cheaper fuel and to make sure that it will never run short of fuel. “Immediately I would revive the Oil Pricing Negotiation Team, and then focus on utilising coconut oil for the fuelling of motor vehicles.”

Oil prices

Tevita said that Tonga’s current oil supply originates from Singapore, but it comes via Australia and Fiji, “and each stop on the way a few percentage is added on to the price.” He said that there was no way around this at the moment because big oil tankers could not call into small island countries, “because we do not have the facilities nor the demand. Tonga’s supply is then off-loaded in Fiji and transhipped to Tonga on small coastal tankers.”

Tevita believed that it was urgent to revive the Oil Pricing Negotiation Team, which used to be made up of personnel from the Energy Division of the Ministry of Land and from the Competent Authority. He said they used to negotiate some good prices for Tonga, and at one negotiation he was involved in they managed to cut the price by about six seniti a litre, which saved Tonga millions of pa‘anga.

The role of the Negotiation Team was taken over by a Petroleum Adviser for the Pacific Islands Forum who negotiated with oil companies on the behalf of Pacific Islands Forum member countries.

Menawhile, Vuna Fa‘otusia, the secretary for the Competent Authority said that they simply play the role of a postal service with regards to the price of fuels, “Whatever come from the Forum that is what we pass on to the public.” Vuna said there was very little adjustment that they do to the recommended price of fuel, but, he said there is a strong feeling by members of the authority that they should also set the price for electricity.