The pipeline was originally established by Lonrho working with the
Government of Mozambique and its ownership, even today, is shrouded in
mystery. What we do know is that the tariff charged for the use of the
pipeline has been very substantially above world market rates for similar
pipelines of a similar length and capacity.
Originally the pipeline was built to serve the oil refinery at Feruka but
after the imposition of sanctions in 1966 by the UN the pipeline was not
used until it became possible to feed refined products through its length
after Independence. Thereafter the Norwegian Government financed the
development of a new petroleum terminal at Beira as a part of the Beira
Corridor Project.
The pipeline was subsequently extended to Harare – by a consortium which
again included Lonrho and the Zimbabwe government. It was designed to
terminate at the newly established underground storage facilities at Msasa
in Harare. The latter are thought to be capable of storing up to half the
total demand for liquid fuels for a year. In fact they have not been used to
any extent because it was discovered that the storage of refined petroleum
products for any length of time is a difficult and expensive operation.
Subsequently the private sector (led by Mobil who have now left the country)
built a storage complex above ground some 3 kilometres from the underground
facilities and these tanks are now used as the terminus of the pipeline.
The capacity of the line is 3 million litres of fuel a day – not the 1,2
billion litres a day as recorded in the article. The balance of our
requirements was always imported via rail from South Africa where there is a
surplus of diesel due to the operations of SASOL.
Eddie Cross
30th October 2007
Post published in: Economy