Mozambique Unveils US$550 Million Bio-Fuels Project
Date: 31-Aug-07
Country: MOZAMBIQUE
Author: Charles Mangwiro
In an interview with Reuters, Eugenio Silva, a senior
PETROMOC official, said it would create about 800 jobs and lead
to a maximum annual production of 226 million litres of ethanol
and bio-diesel seven years after start-up.
Sugar cane and jatropha, a drought-resistant shrub, will be
planted on some 74,000 hectares of land as part of the joint
project with COFAMOSA, which represents some 200 Mozambican and
South African farmers, Silva said.
"There are so many components which include (a) plantation,
the building of a totally new infrastructure and processing of
raw material," he said, adding that PETROMOC intended to get
funding for the project from international donors and investors.
The proposed development will be located in Corrumane, some
100 km southwest of the capital Maputo and could help ease an
energy crunch in Mozambique, which has enjoyed an economic boom
since the end of a 17-year civil war in 1992.
The former Portuguese colony has limited energy supplies,
making it reliant on foreign oil and gas. Rising petrol prices
have pinched Mozambican consumers and prompted fears that the
nation's economic growth could slow.
The government has responded by broadening its search for
new energy sources to include bio-fuel development.
Officials have suggested that jatropha, ricin, african palm,
and coconuts, all of which grow abundantly in Mozambique, could
provide the raw material for bio-diesels, while sugar cane,
maize and cassava could be used to produce ethanol.
Mozambique also hopes to be able to export bio-fuels to
neighbouring African nations and further afield.
PETROMOC, which is 80-percent owned by the government and
20-percent owned by employees, operates 119 petrol stations in
the country and has 35 percent of the domestic energy market.