ZIMBABWE has signed a $1.3 billion joint venture agreement with British-based Coven Energy to develop a fuel pipeline from the Mozambican port city of Beira to the capital city Harare, the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa said.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the pipeline would compliment the existing one that also links Harare and Beira and make landlocked Zimbabwe a fuel hub for the southern Africa region. The joint venture project between The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe and Coven Energy Limited is for purposes of developing and operating a second pipeline from Beira to Harare.
“The project will result in the National Oil and Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe and Coven Energy entering into a 50:50 Public-Private Partnership. The project will create employment opportunities as well as generate foreign currency for the country. It will also help reduce vehicular congestion and the smuggling of petroleum products.
“The pipeline will be built over four years at an estimated cost of $1.3 billion. The partnership will be for a period of 30 years,” Minister Mutsvangwa said during a post-Cabinet briefing.
Zimbabwe has in the past experienced acute shortages of fuel due to shortages of foreign exchange but supplies have improved in recent months after the government allowed companies to sell the commodity in U.S. dollars.
