Energy security critical for economic development-Moagi
Lebogang Mosikare | Thursday October 10, 2024 19:08
When giving a keynote address, Moagi said that the government’ strategic storage facilities built in Gaborone and Francistown are no longer sufficient to maintain the government's aim to provide a contingency supply of petroleum products, in line with the Essential Supplies Programme. “This is due primarily to the increased consumption of petroleum products since the facilities were built in 1979. As a result, in 2008 the Government of Botswana through the then Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources (Department of Energy) engaged a consultant to review the security of supply strategy for the country as well as undertake a feasibility study to expand existing Government Petroleum Reserve Storage Facilities.The study was then reviewed and updated in 2012 and both studies reviewed the Government’s bulk petroleum product strategic storage programme of maintaining strategic stocks of petrol, diesel, illuminating paraffin and aviation fuels equivalent to 90 days of prevailing consumption in line with the World Bank’s recommendations for a non-oil producing country like us,” said Moagi.
As part of enhancing the security of supply for the country, Moagi noted, the studies also recommended the diversification of our routes and sources of supply to reduce concentration risk on the primary route and sources of South African refineries. “In addition, the national demand projections for petroleum products were also studied to establish the national strategic areas for location of the storage facilities. This was then used as a basis for determination of future development of bulk storage facilities in Ghanzi, Francistown and Tshele Hills. It is against this background that the Government sanctioned Botswana Oil Limited (BOL) to commence construction of the Francistown Depot expansion for which the groundbreaking was done in September 2022 followed by commencement of construction immediately thereafter,” Moagi explained.
When giving an overview of the Francistown depot expansion and updates, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BOL, Meshack Tshekedi, also reiterated that petroleum products are imported outside the country and as such, government built the storage facilities in Gaborone, Francistown and Tshele Hills to caution the country from any disruptions that may happen where the country buys its petroleum products.