Page 14 - DMEA Week 05 2021

DMEA FUELS DMEA

Botswana’s energy min urges rapid

finish of Tshele Hills fuel depot

BOTSWANA LEFOKO Moagi, Botswana’s Minister of Min- quoted as saying by Botswana Daily News. “We
eral Resources, Green Technology and Energy really need to be talking time, because the more
The government wants Security, has urged the national oil company we continue to extend, the more the cost esca-
to establish 60 days’ (NOC) to speed up construction work on a new lates. It is better to make mistakes along the way
worth of strategic fuel storage depot in the Tshele Hills. than to want to be perfect until we have run out
reserves. During a tour of the building site in Tshele of time.”
Hills earlier this week, Moagi described the pro- Joel Sentsho, BOL’s chairman, responded by
ject as crucial for Botswana’s energy security. saying that his company remained committed to
The country must expand its capacity to store the goal of ensuring the country’s energy secu-
petroleum products, since it is dependent on rity. “The Tshele Hill project is one of the ena-
imported supplies, he declared. The need for blers that will assist us to achieve this mandate,
additional storage capacity has become even and we will do our best to ensure that the project
clearer in light of the challenges faced by Botswa- is delivered successfully,” he commented.
na’s main suppliers, he said, referring to refinery Sentsho also said he was confident that BOL
outages in South Africa. would be able to fulfil the government’s instruc-
“As a landlocked country, we get our fuel tions with respect to establishing strategic
supplies from other countries,” he explained. “If reserves that were large enough to cover at least
we continue to see threats from our sources and 60 days’ worth of petroleum product consump-
their refineries going down, it is a sign that very tion. “Ideally as a landlocked country, Botswana
soon they are going to be servicing their own should maintain at least 90 days’ cover,” he stated.
first. Therefore, there must be something we are “Upon completion of the [Tshele Hills] project
sure of in terms of our own supply.” and other planned projects across the country,
He also urged Botswana Oil Ltd (BOL) to including the Francistown Depot expansion and
wrap up the project quickly and on schedule. the Ghanzi Depot development, Botswana will
“It is within our scope and control to deliver reach this objective.” ™
this project in the earliest time possible,” he was

Nigeria reportedly considering rail

transport for petroleum products

NIGERIA A representative of Nigeria’s Department of Meanwhile, he commented, the country is
Petroleum Resources (DPR) said at the week- not in a position to raise the volume of fuel trans-
Existing transportation end that the federal government was considering ported by road. “[The] government is actually
routes are inadequate. proposals for using rail to deliver refined fuels to looking at some alternatives of moving petro-
consumers in some regions. leum products because our roads are over-bur-
According to Ebi Ogiowo, the operation dened,” he was quoted as saying by Daily Trust.
controller of DPR’s Benin field office, officials in Road tankers already carry about 80-90% of
Abuja are looking into this option because exist- Nigerian fuel shipments, he explained.
ing transportation routes are inadequate for var- Under these conditions, he said, Abuja
ious reasons. With respect to pipelines, he told sees the railways as a viable alternative. “[The]
reporters on the sidelines of the department’s government is investing heavily in rail trans-
annual meeting with fuel marketers in Delta and portation and considering it for movement of
Edo states, some of Nigeria’s existing petroleum petroleum products, and in the next two years,
product links are not even functional. Others, it will see the light of the day. And Nigeria will all
meanwhile, have been in operation for 50 years be better for it, as it will help in reducing the risk
and are showing their age, he said. of moving petroleum products across the nation
Still others are not working because they have through the roads,” he asserted.
been sabotaged or damaged, Ogiowo added. Ogiowo did not say which railways might be
Problems of this type have impaired the func- used to transport petroleum products. Nor did
tioning of some fuel storage depots in eastern he say how many tankers were available or how
and northern Nigeria, he noted. much fuel might be delivered in this fashion. ™

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