MUTARE – Government has embarked on a three phased programme to increase the Beira fuel pipeline capacity from the current 6 million litres per day up to 16,7 million litres, an official has said.
Minister of Energy and Power Development Dr Samuel Undenge made the remarks during the relaunch of the Mutare Press Club.
Dr Undenge said government has already completed phase zero, which saw the pipeline infrastructure being expanded to accommodate 6 million litres a day from the initial 4 million litres.
“There is a three phased programme to increase the pipeline throughput to meet growing demand. Phase zero, which entailed introducing (DRA) has been implemented and has increased pipeline throughput from four million to six million litres per day,” he said.
Dr Undenge added that this will be followed by two other phases characterised by the installation of two intermediary pump stations.
“There will be two intermediary pump stations and installation of bigger pumps at Beira and Maforga by the CPMZ. This will bring the capacity to 16,7 million litres per day,” he said without giving a timeframe.
At the moment, the country’s average daily consumption of diesel is 2,5 million litres while that of petrol blend is 1,5 million litres.
The massive project will ease the country’s fuel enigma attracting huge costs as it is largely depend on road and rail transportation.
The country’s fuel is imported mostly through the Beira-Harare pipeline supplied by several farm tanks in the former Mozambican capital – owned by various multinational companies.
Zimbabwe has a stake through the National Oil Infrastructure Company (NOIC), which is a shareholder in the INPETRO tank farm in Beira together with IPG of Kuwait and Petromoc of Mozambique.
The tanks are linked to the Companhiado De Pipeline Mozambique-Zimbabwe (CPMZ) pipeline that runs from Beira to Feruka and government also has a 25 year lease agreement as the sole user of the CPMZ pipeline with a take or pay arrangement that is administered by the NOIC.
Moreover, government through NOIC, owns 50% of the Feruka-Harare pipeline with the other 50% owned by LONMIN.
Dr Undenge said government is already pursuing to acquire LONMIN shareholding through NOIC.
“Efforts to acquire LONMIN shareholding by NOIC are being pursed. NOIC has storages in Feruka, Mabvuku, Msasa and Beitbridge. Apart from this public fuel storage infrastructure, private companies have depots in many parts of the country with the majority being in Harare (Birmingham area).” He said adding that, NOPIC recently acquired a fuel depot in Bulawayo, which is now ready for commissioning.
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