A $600-million diesel and gasoline pipeline linking the Mozambican capital Maputo with neighbouring South Africa will be in operation by the end of 2009, an official with the company overseeing the project said on Monday.
"We will start building it in mid-2008 and it will be ready by 2009," Eugenio Silva, an executive with pipeline firm Petroline, told Reuters in an interview. Petroline is controlled by a South African-Mozambican consortium.
Silva predicted the 400-km (250-mile) pipeline will help ease a worsening fuel crisis in neighbouring South Africa, particularly Gauteng province, which is home to much of the country's industry as well as its largest city, Johannesburg. Demand for fuel has risen in recent years, spurred by a booming South African economy. Maputo, which is only about 90 km (56 miles) from the South African border, is a major destination for fuel imports.
The pipeline would have the capacity to transport five million tonnes of diesel and gasoline per year. "The imports are expected to relieve the pressure of the lack of liquid fuels in South African ports and, at the same time, contribute to importing fuels to Mozambique and other neighbouring countries," Silva said.
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