ZIMBABWE will soon benefit from a rising world demand for coal, especially from Asia, necessitated by a sharp increase in oil prices, which touched a record high of $135 a barrel this week and rising gas prices.

The African Development Bank predicts that, generally, coal production in Africa will increase at an average of three percent a year to 2011 due to the predicted rising demand.

"The current sharp increases in oil and gas prices... coupled with rising energy demand particularly from ... China and India, have boosted concerns about the security, diversity, affordability and reliability of energy supplies around the globe," said Abdul Kamara, manager at the AfDB's research division.

"Coal has recently come back into fashion due to three advantages over oil and gas: lower prices per energy unit, higher reserves-to-production ratio, and a different geopolitical distribution of reserves," he said.

Zimbabwe, with extensive coal reserves, was predicted to spend $20-billion on the development of coal and power projects over the next decade.