Chokwe — The pipeline that transports natural gas from the Temane field in the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane to Secunda, in South Africa, is in good condition, and there are no signs of any gas leaks.

This was the finding announced on Yhursday in Chokwe, in Gaza province, by a team of technicians sent to clean the pipeline, which was built by the South African petrochemical company SASOL in 2004. SASOL was granted the rights to exploit natural gas not only at Temane but also in the nearby Pande field.

"In the areas where we did our work we could not find any gas leaks or any other kind of problem. This pipeline is still new, and it has no problems", said Neo Modise, the director of the technical team.

This job, budgeted at about 4.3 million US dollars is to be done at all the eight stations along the 865 kilometre long pipeline.

Modise said that the cleaning (known as "pigging") consists of introducing three machines ("pigs") into the pipeline to inspect the internal integrity of the infrastructure, check for corrosion and detect possible gas leaks.

The work has so far been done at three stations, covering the 149 kilometres between Temane and Chokwe.

Modise explained that this job is necessary because any leak of gas may cause fires in the nearby areas. As a preventive measure, the company made sure that there are no houses near the pipeline, and it also carried out an awareness campaign to explain people the importance of this measure.

As a matter of routine, a "pigging" is carried out every six years, but in the Mozambican cases, the period will be defined in accordance with the results of the current exercise.

Mm/bm/pf (299)