Zim oil route imminent after SA Strike

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Wednesday June 23, 2010 00:00

Speaking at the Energy Pitso held in Gaborone on Monday, Kedikilwe said plans to import fuel from Beira in Mozambique were at an advanced stage and were part of broader plans to boost the nation's strategic oil reserves from the present 22 days cover to 90 days in the long-term.

'We all learnt a big lesson recently when the Transnet strike in South Africa cut off fuel supplies to Botswana,' he said. 'In the next two months, we should be starting to import fuel by road and rail from Masasa Depot just outside Harare.' He did not specify quantities.

Fuel supplies recently became erratic and were eventually reduced to less than 50 percent of its normal supply due to a strike action by transport workers in South Africa.

Minister Kedikilwe said importing oil from Mozambique to Harare, whence carting it onwards by road and rail to Botswana, was only a short-term measure. Long-term plans were nestled under a national oil company and involved expanding reserve tanks and installing a pipeline from Harare to Francistown and another one from Mozambique through northern South Africa to Gaborone.

'The National Oil Company is on the cards and we hope that it will take off ground before the end of the year,' Kedikilwe said. 'My recent trips to Mozambique were basically for benchmarking purposes so that we may learn how such an institution operates and issues like legislation and citizen participation in the oil industry,' he said.

The government is actually exploring ways of how citizen companies could be used to cart the fuel by road from Harare.

Adding his voice, permanent Secretary Gabaake Gabaake said in addition to beefing up Botswana's strategic reserves, sourcing oil from Mozambique would also cut the transportation costs of the private companies involved.

Gabaake allayed fears that the National Oil Company would force private players out of business, saying that the company would be involved in other things; infrastructure development being one.

'As Government, the last thing that we want to do is go into a business that has been run on a strictly commercial basis like oil,' he said. 'The oil company can be involved in things like construction of the pipeline and the reserve tanks.'

Meanwhile, the country chair of Shell Botswana, Boitumelo Sekwababe, says the pulling out of multinational oil firms such as BP and Shell should be used as an opportunity to empower Batswana.

'Maybe the pulling out of these large corporations is not such a bad thing after all,' says Sekwababe. 'These companies are pulling out not because there is anything particularly wrong with Botswana. It's a long-term strategic move for them. Batswana should take advantage of this development.'

Botswana has a demand of 2.5 million litres of oil per day and 850 million litres of oil per year.