Page 18 - DMEA Week 48 2020

DMEA FUELS DMEA

Botswana Oil seeks to ensure 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.
Botswana also plans to the wake of recent shortages. The company also intends to build storage
buy fuel from Namibia According to Mosetlho Kenamile, the com- facilities in the Tshele Hills, Kenamaile noted.
and Zimbabwe in the pany’s acting COO, BOL is working to identify This project will help Botswana consolidate its
long term. 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. ™

TRANSPORT

NGOs file suit in a bid to block EACOP project

UGANDA FOUR non-governmental organisations of Uganda’s National Environmental Manage-
(NGOs) from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania are ment Authority [NEMA], but the same was not
Four non-governmental making an attempt to block the construction of issued prior to the signing of the agreements by
organisations (NGOs) the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). both Uganda and Tanzania.”
from Uganda, Kenya According to Ugandan press reports, the The NGOs are requesting the East African
and Tanzania are NGOs – Africa Institute for Energy Governance Court of Justice to order that “prior to any simi-
making an attempt to (Uganda), the Centre for Food and Adequate lar project, the following are conducted: climate
block the construction Living Rights (Uganda), the Centre for Strategic change impact assessment, human rights impact
of the East Africa Crude Litigation (Tanzania) and Natural Justice-Kenya assessment and meaningful, effective and trans-
Oil Pipeline (EACOP). – have jointly lodged a suit in the East African parent public consultations, ensuring robust
Court of Justice. In court filings, they argue community and broad public participation,”
that work on the project should not go forward according to legal pleadings cited by Ugandan
because the governments of Uganda and Tanza- news agencies. They have asked the court to issue
nia have not conducted the environmental and an injunction against the governments of Tanza-
social impact assessment (ESIA) required under nia and Uganda, as well as the EAC.
the East African Community (EAC) Treaty and News of the legal challenge emerged shortly
other relevant international laws. after the African Development Bank (AfDB)
The plaintiffs are basing their request on the unveiled plans to provide financial support for
fact that Tanzanian and Ugandan authorities did small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
not meet this standard prior to the signing of cer- that contribute to the EACOP project. In a state-
tain agreements on the project. In their petition, ment, the bank said it intended to split $1mn in
they said: “As a requirement [under] national as grant money equally between Uganda and Tan-
well as the EAC law, the project developer for the zania. The Ugandan government has pledged to
EACOP project in Uganda must be issued with a make another $500,000 available to local SMEs,
certificate of approval of environment and social and Tanzanian authorities are looking at a simi-
impact assessment approved by the government lar plan, according to the statement. ™

P18 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 03•December•2020