BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – The Eswatini National Petroleum Company (ENPC) has managed to make E1 billion towards the construction of the Eswatini National Strategic Oil Reserve Facility.
This transpired yesterday during the meeting between the ENPC and legislators who are members of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy Portfolio Committee. Portfolio Committee members from both the House of Assembly and Senate had met in Pigg’s Peak to find out how the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy operates.
Although the ENPC has managed to make E1 billion towards this project, an amount of not less than E2 billion is needed to build this facility, which is set to be constructed in Phuzumoya, under Siphofaneni Constituency in the Lubombo Region. According to ENPC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nhlanhla Dlamini, a feasibility study to construct this facility and a business case was made last year. A consultancy from South Africa was appointed to come up with designs of the facility.
Dlamini said the South African consultancy did the designs to the fullest and the cost estimates were also done. The project was estimated to cost E2.2 billion. However, a consultancy from Taiwan also showed an interest to help the nation. The Taiwanese consultancy also did its own designs, which were basic and were never done to the core, according to the CEO.
According to Dlamini, the designs from the Taiwanese started from E7 billion. However, this amount was seen to be exorbitant. Negotiations that followed from that development resulted in the costs being reduced to E5.2 billion. Dlamini said there were two amounts at table at the moment, and those were the E2.2 billion and E5.2 billion. The issue was handled by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg and Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Prince Lonkhokhela.
The CEO told the legislators about the importance of the Strategic Oil Reserve. He said it was there to provide fuel security to the country. He mentioned that the storage capacity of the existing filling stations in the country could only last for about two to three days. The facility would help in prolonging the storage of the fuel for about two to three months. He said Eswatini consumed about 30 million litres of fuel per month.
