Page 14 - DMEA Week 20 2022

DMEA FUELS DMEA

Imopetro: no risk of short-term fuel shortage

AFRICA ABIBA Amade, director of operations at she added. “One has already unloaded. It fin-
Mozambique’s national fuel import concern ished unloading yesterday [May 12], and now
Imopetro, said on Friday, May 13 that she did not we are unloading the ship with [cooking] gas in
expect the country to encounter any petroleum Maputo. We have two more that are waiting to
product shortages in the near term, as import unload petrol, jet fuel and diesel.”
shipments have continued to arrive and no inter- Amade further explained that Imopetro’s
ruptions are expected. normal practice was to make arrangements to
Speaking at a press briefing in Maputo, import petroleum products on a monthly basis,
Amade said that Mozambique’s domestic fuel and that it was remaining in contact with suppli-
market was in relatively stable condition, despite ers as part of its efforts to ensure that adequate
the recent fluctuations in world crude oil prices. quantities of fuel were available on the local mar-
As of the beginning of the week starting May 9, ket. The group has already taken the necessary
she said, Imopetro’s stocks contained enough steps to ensure fuel supplies in June, she said.
gasoline to cover 29 days of consumption, “Imports are continuing at normal levels,” she
enough diesel to cover 19 days of consump- told reporters. “We have the order for June con-
tion and enough LPG to cover 16 days of con- firmed. We placed the order for June at the end
sumption. She also stressed that shipments of of April. The supplier has confirmed that we have
imported fuel were still arriving regularly in two windows for supply, one from 12 to 16 June,
Mozambican ports. For example, she stated, the and the other from 26 to 30 June. Import levels
port of Pemba saw one vessel finish unloading remain the same. The orders remain at the level
gasoline and diesel on May 6, while another ves- of 197,000 to 200,000 tonnes of fuel a month.”
sel carrying jet fuel had just docked at the port of Imopetro is the exclusive agent for the impor-
Nacala and another two fuel tankers were wait- tation of liquid and gaseous fuels into Mozam-
ing to dock and unload their cargo at the port of bique. It is a group owned by all of the fuel
Beira as of May 13. distributors that have authorisation to operate in
“Right now, we have three ships in Maputo,” the country.™

Rwanda’s to launch cooking gas plant

AFRICA RWANDA’S first cooking gas plant can be will be producing cooking gas from methane
expected to start production in a year, the New gas,” Mujawamariya said.
Times (Rwanda) reported on May 16. According The development comes as Rwanda, like
to Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, the Minister of many countries globally, has been hit by ris-
Environment, Rwanda is working with private ing prices of petroleum products, partly due to
companies “to fast-track studies that will pave Russia’s war in Ukraine. According to the New
the way for setting up a cooking gas factory.” This Times, the price of liquefied petroleum gas
is the latest step to end the country’s reliance on (LPG) rose to Rwf1, 400 ($1.38) per kilogramme
wood fuel for cooking. in March this year, up from Rwf1,200 ($1.20) in
Mujawamariya was speaking at a press con- December 2021. According to the Ministry of
ference ahead of the 2022 SEforALL Global Infrastructure, the demand for LPG is estimated
Forum in Kigali, which runs from May 17 – 19. to rise to more than 240,000 tonnes by 2024 from
The forum is taking place in Africa for the first 10,000 tonnes in 2017. Rwanda has a target to
time and is being organised under the theme reduce charcoal consumption from 79% in 2017
“Driving action for a people-centred energy to 42% by 2024. An investment of $1.37bn is
transition”. needed by 2030 to achieve the government’s tar-
It will address challenges and identify solu- get, said the New Times.
tions towards realising the United Nation’s Mujawamariya said that Rwanda Green Fund
Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) of (FONERWA) has so far secured over $200mn to
“affordable, reliable, sustainable and mod- fund green investments. The minister added that
ern energy for all”. Over 1,000 participants Rwanda has opened gates for investors to tap into
are expected to attend the forum that will also the available green investment opportunities.
discuss clean cooking energy, according to the “These include assembling electric vehicles,
minister. turning waste into clean energy, shifting from
“Rwanda is open for green investments. Some biomass to clean cooking fuel, privatising forest
of the investment opportunities include shifting management, green buildings among many oth-
from biomass energy to clean cooking energy. In ers to be able to achieve climate pledges known
one year ahead we expect to have a factory that as NDCs by 2030.”™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 20 19•May•2022