19 May 2016, Harare -The Zimbabwean government has dropped plans to construct a US$1 billion petroleum pipeline from Mozambique to augment the existing fuel channel, which no longer has the capacity to adequately supply fuel into the country, the Financial Gazette’s Companies & Markets can reveal.
The move comes after Maputo, which was given the proposal three years ago, snubbed President Robert Mugabe’s administration.
The plan was to construct a second pipeline linking the port of Beira in Mozambique and the Msasa fuel depot in Harare to complement the existing Beira to Harare pipeline which was built in 1966.
The pipeline was expected to pump about 500 million litres of fuel per month from Beira into Mabvuku, Msasa and Feruka storage facilities.
Although a number of investors, including Russian oil giant, Rosneft, and Mining, Oil and Gas Services Company (MOGS) of South Africa, had put forward proposals to construct the proposed pipeline, Zimbabwe could not have taken a decision to construct the pipeline without the involvement of Mozambique.
Sources said Mozambique had not responded to Zimbabwe’s proposal, leaving the landlocked country convinced the Eastern neighbour was unwilling to support the project.
- Financial Gazette
