The president of Malawi, Bingu Wa Mutarika, last week renewed his government’s commitment to building an oil pipeline linking the Mozambican port of Beira to Nsanje, with a view to regularly supplying fuel to Malawi.
According to Rádio Moçambique, the president, who was speaking at the inaugural session of the Malawi parliament following general elections in May, said that the project aimed also to build a storage facility in Nsanje, thus allowing Malawi to store enough fuel for a three-month supply, a compared with two weeks currently.
In 2008 some regions of Malawi, including the capital Lilongwe, were subjected to restrictions in the supply of fuel due to constantly running out of stocks, which affected the sustainability of the Malawian economy.
Preliminary studies project the cost of construction of the Beira-Nsanje pipeline at US$150 million and the project may be funded by Venessia Petroleum, a Qatar-based oil company that is preparing to carry out feasibility and engineering surveys for the project.
With the construction of the oil pipeline, Malawi will have enough fuel in the country and at competitive prices unlike what is currently the case.
Malwi is supplied with fuel by road from the port of Beira or from Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania, although the Nacala corridor is another alternative supply route.
The Malwian parliament, which began working Tuesday, is also expecetd to approve a loan of US$48 million from the World Banki to implement the project to interlink the electricity grids of Malawi and Mozambique via the Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric Dam (HCB) in Tete province, which is considered to be the best option to bring na end to the country’s energy crisis. (macauhub)
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