THE STANDARD FINANCIAL STANDARD The National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) could soon lose the mandate of managing the country’s strategic petroleum reserves, further weakening the State-run company. If proposals by the Petroleum ministry go through, this will become one of many key functions that the oil marketing company has lost over the years through a combination of factors, including regulation and market forces. While it has never lived up to the mandate of setting up and managing the country’s strategic oil stocks, Nock had been expected to play a bigger role in its core mandate of stabilising and influencing retail prices of petroleum.