BOL to launch rural mobile filling stations
Isaac Pinielo | Thursday October 23, 2014 15:32
In an interview with BusinessWeek, BOL Chief Executive Officer, Willie Mokgatlhe said the development of mobile filling stations in rural areas would mitigate the challenge of accessibility of fuel specifically in remote areas and facilitated involvement of citizens in the oil industry.
Mokgatlhe said citizens would have the opportunity to operate mobile filling stations in their communities, adding that this initiative augmented benefits for the communities in which the filling stations operated. He said the benefits of this initiative included employment creation and provision of services such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and convenience stores.
Mokgatlhe further noted that this project would be piloted in five areas, with one mobile filling station rolled out per area. The selection criteria would be influenced by distance from the nearest filling station and the village population.
The CEO also stated that the mobile filling station concept was a relatively new innovation, which provided fuel and other related services to outlying communities at lower capital costs than traditional filling stations.
“These [mobile filling stations] are operational in countries like South Africa, Canada and Australia. Since this project is new, we are working with authorities to ensure that the mobile filling station concept is approved prior to roll out. This process is at an advanced stage,” he said.
Mokgatlhe noted that selection criteria had been developed and would be applied to select the citizens who would manage the mobile filling stations.
“Botswana Oil will facilitate the development of the stations and work with the citizens identified to ensure that the stations are constructed in accordance to the standards and requirements set out by the Department of Energy,” he said.
Since it started operations almost a year ago, BOL has achieved some success across various functions of the business. The company developed a five-year strategy and was resourced in accordance with the strategy.
Mokgatle explained that implementation of the corporate strategy had commenced across all functions of the business, including operations, supply and manufacturing, corporate policy, strategy and business planning, as well as corporate services. Since its inception, Botswana Oil focused on forging partnerships with other National Oil Companies (NOCs) in order to enhance diversification of supply and routes of petroleum products.
Mokgatlhe noted that there are other inherent advantages of the strategic alliances that the company forms such as access to coastal storage facilities and being involved in the whole supply chain from the coast to inland Botswana. As a first step, the CEO said they have entered into cooperation agreements with regional national oil companies like PetroSA of South Africa, NamCor of Namibia and PetroMoc of Mozambique.
“These agreements are geared towards fostering closer links with these NOCs for the benefit of the people of the respective countries. As a new entity, we are also receiving support from these entities in order to build our own capacity,” he stated.
Mokgatlhe added that BOL’s partners included local companies active in the oil industry as well as multinational oil companies such as Total, Vivo Energy, Engen Marketing Botswana, Puma Energy and Chevron.
Botswana currently consumes about 1.3 billion litres of fuel annually; this is mainly split between petrol and diesel with a small percentage being paraffin. Currently, Botswana imports almost all her petroleum requirements from South Africa with small quantities coming through Namibia and Mozambique.
With South Africa having advised that export of petroleum products at current levels is not sustainable, as their refineries cannot meet domestic demand, Mokgatlhe revealed that it [South Africa] is also now a net importer.
“It is against this background that Botswana acknowledges that the over reliance on a single source of fuel supply is a risk to security of supply to Botswana,” he said.
He mentioned that BOL was making concerted efforts to mitigate against supply shortfalls. “The oil company was also investigating technologies for the conversion of coal to petroleum products, more so that Botswana has no oil refineries,” he said.
He added that the company had also considered working towards diversification of supply sources to include countries such as Mozambique and Namibia.