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By Ross Moyo
Zimbabwe and Mozambique are set to benefit from an available USD $600 million dollars meant for the cooking gas production factory of the South African petrochemical company Sasol, in Temane, Inhambane province, set to be completed by September this year, after successive postponements.
Operations of the project, whose construction began in 2022, is expected to improve both the price and availability of cooking gas, to the relief of consumers throughout the the Sadc region.
Guarantee of the start of operations was given in Maputo on Friday by Sasol’s director of corporate relations, Mateus Mosse, who affirmed this.
It is expected the completion of the infrastructure in September will enable Sasol to start producing 30,000 tons of cooking gas annually, satisfying 70% percent of national demand.
“In addition to the domestic gas refinery, the resources produced will also be used to produce light oil and supply the Temane Thermal Power Plant with natural gas, which should generate 450 megawatts of electricity,” Mosse said.
Materialization of this project is the result of a production-sharing agreement, which provides for the construction of a cooking gas production infrastructure and supply of 23 million gigajoules per year for the Temane Thermal Power Plant.
Construction of the infrastructure to produce liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or cooking gas) involves several companies, some of which are national. “The companies operated with a budget of US$600 million, of which US$72 million was exclusively earmarked for companies owned by Mozambicans.”
The inauguration was initially scheduled for the second half of last year.
The Sasol boss also told the press the project was 80% complete and would start operating this year.
“The completion of the factory has been delayed. Operations were scheduled to start in the last quarter of last year, but we were forced to interrupt the works due to the post-election protests that began in October 2024,” he explained.
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