Page 9 - AfrElec Week 48 2020

AfrElec FUELS AfrElec

Botswana Oil Ltd seeks to ensure

national fuel supplies

BOTSWANA BOTSWANA Oil Ltd (BOL) has pledged to storage capacity to its facilities at Francistown,
work harder to ensure adequate fuel supplies in he said.
the wake of recent shortages. The company also intends to build storage
According to Mosetlho Kenamile, the com- facilities in the Tshele Hills, Kenamaile noted.
pany’s acting COO, BOL is working to identify This project will help Botswana consolidate its
new suppliers to compensate for fluctuations in fuel supplies but will also support plans for future
shipments from South Africa, which has long fuel trade with Zambia and other neighbouring
been the country’s main source of petroleum countries, he said. When the Tshele storage units
products. The company is hoping to secure are full, he said, BOL will be able to load fuel onto
fuel from Mozambique, which appears to have trucks for transport across the Kazungula bridge
enough to permit exports to Botswana, he said in Zambia, he said.
during a media workshop in Gaborone. Kenamile further stated that the national
In the long term, he added, it also aims to buy government would like to see more local work-
refined fuels from Namibia and Zimbabwe. ers and investors participate in the fuel business.
Meanwhile, the BOL head continued, Bot- During the most recent shortages, he com-
swana’s government would like to invest more mented, BOL hired six new Botswana employees
in the fuel sector. He did not name any specific to support its logistics operations. These work-
investment targets but stated that Gaborone ers have enabled the company to put another 30
supported plans to construct additional storage tanker trucks on the road to supply the domestic
facilities for the purpose of building up larger market, he said.
inventories. The acting COO did not say whether the
BOL intends to expand its existing storage company had drawn up any specific human
networks in order to ensure that the country resources initiatives. He did reveal, though, that
can store enough petroleum products to cover state-owned BOL had drafted a bill that would
60 days of consumption, he explained. It will allow it to assume greater control over the fuel
achieve this goal by adding 38-60mn litres of industry.™

Buhari says state must ensure crude

supplies to independent refineries

NIGERIA NIGERIAN President Muhammadu Buhari has both directly and indirectly, and said he hoped
expressed strong support for independent oil the project would continue to promote eco-
refineries by ordering government agencies and nomic growth in the region.
state-controlled companies to ensure deliveries Energy hub
of feedstock to such plants. He was speaking several days before Walter-
Last week, the president said he had smith announced that it had signed a Technical
instructed the Department of Petroleum Support Agreement (TSA) with the UN Indus-
Resources (DPR) and state-owned Nigerian trial Development Organisation (UNIDO)
National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) to ensure and the UN Economic Commission for Africa
deliveries of crude to the modular oil-process- (UNECA) on the establishment of an energy
ing plant built by Waltersmith Petroman Oil at innovation park near the refinery. The deal
the Ibigwe oilfield in Imo State. He also tasked builds on the company’s ongoing partnership
DPR and NNPC with making certain that the with UNIDO, according to Nigerian press
new refinery and other privately owned facilities reports.
like it had enough crude oil and gas condensate Waltersmith said last week that it hoped to
to operate optimally. bring other companies working along the hydro-
Buhari stated that his government was carbon value chain – manufacturers of petro-
backing modular refinery projects within the chemicals, plastics and pharmaceuticals, as well
framework of a wider effort to reduce Nigeria’s as research organisations and light manufactur-
dependence on imported petroleum products. ing enterprises – to the park. In order to attract
Additionally, he noted that the construction of such tenants, it will offer to provide partners with
the Ibigwe plant had created thousands of jobs, direct access to valuable raw materials from the

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