ZIMBABWE DRAG REDUCERS INCREASE FERUKA PUMPING CAPACITY

Zimbabwe has raised the pumping capacity of Feruka oil pipeline linking Beira and Harare fuel depot after introducing drag reducers in a bid to increase fuel supplies into the country. The country also intends to become a regional petroleum hub, in line with a new five year economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Socio Economic Transformation.

Drag reducers – also known as drag reducing agents, or flow enhancers – are materials that reduce frictional pressure during fluid flow in a conduit or a pipeline.

The Feruka pipeline is now pumping 6,5 million litres of fuel per day from four million litres, Mines and Energy Development Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire said in an interview yesterday.

“And if we are able to put more boosters, we should be able to move 7,5 million litres per day,” he said.
Under the Zim Asset blueprint, the Government said it would raise fuel supplies into the country through introducing drag reducing agents in Feruka oil pipeline to increase pumping capacity.

The Government is also earmarking a second pipeline between the Port of Beira and Harare.

Minister Mavhaire said the Government would initiate studies on the construction of the second pipeline.
He added that the Government was already pursuing bilateral procedures with Mozambique with a view of coming up with a second pipeline. The minister said the geographical position of Zimbabwe in the region required substantial investment into fuel transportation and storage facilities.

He said a number of investors have put forward proposals in view of building a second pipeline.
Among them is Mining Oil and Gas Services, a South African-based company, which intends to construct a multi billion-dollar fuel pipeline linking Beira and three Southern African countries through Zimbabwe. The proposed pipeline will start in Beira and run through Zimbabwe in Harare and Bulawayo. From Bulawayo, it will run south-west to Botswana and run north through Zambia to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The proposed project would be implemented in phases, with the first stage involving the construction of Beira-Harare section at an estimated cost of US$1 billion.

The pipeline will run parallel with the Feruka oil pipeline linking Beira and Msasa fuel depot in Harare and will have an estimated capacity of 500 million litres of fuel per month.

[ENERGY MIX REPORT]