Results of Mozambique–Malawi fuel pipeline study said to be favourable

Marcel Chimwala

A study into the feasibility of a multi- million-dollar fuel pipeline
from Mozam-bique’s Indian Ocean port of Beira to Malawi’s lower Shire
Valley district of Nsanje – undertaken by Qatari firm Vanessia
Petroleum – has reportedly produced favourable results, and the Malawi
government is optimistic that implementation of the project will start
before the end of the year.

The project will slash the cost of transporting imported liquid fuel from the coast to the landlocked Southern African country.

Malawi
Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe says: “The information we have so far
indicates that the project is feasible. We will soon engage in talks
with the Mozambican government, through whose territory the pipeline is
expected to pass, on how best the project can be carried out.

“We hope the negotiations will be completed soon to allow the project to commence before the end of the year.”

Gondwe
says Vanessia Petroleum has pledged to spend $150-million on laying the
pipeline and building fuel storage facility at Nsanje, which will also
be the port of call for the proposed Shire–Zambezi waterway project.

He says the Qatari firm will manage the pipeline and storage facilities under the build, operate and transfer model.

The
fuel storage facility will enable Malawi – which currently has the
capacity to hold oil stocks to last ten days only – to hold enough oil
to last about 90 days.

Currently, Malawi transports its fuel by
road from the ports of Dar-es-Salaam, in Tanzania, Nacala, in
Mozambique, and Durban, in South Africa, and “the high cost of fuel in
the country” is partly blamed on this relatively expensive mode of
transport.