7 July 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican government plans to press ahead with a plan to use natural gas as a road transport fuel, in order to reduce the country's dependence on imported fuels, declared environment Minister Alcinda Abreu on Monday.
Speaking at the opening of a seminar on the use of gas-powered vehicles, Abreu said Mozambique's own plentiful supplies of natural gas could play a vital role in achieving the country's energy and environmental goals.
"Mozambique is a country with huge potential in the energy sector", she said, "and natural gas is a resource that occupies a special position, with reserves estimated at 3.6 trillion cubic feet in the Pande and Temane fields (in the southern province of Inhambane)".
Abreu was also enthusiastic about using natural gas to replace wood fuel in improved stoves. Such changes would improve the quality of the air in urban centres, with consequent positive impacts on human health.
Last year, Mozambique's total consumption of imported fossil fuels was 600,000 cubic metres, of which more than 421,000 cubic metres was diesel.
Taibi Issufo, the deputy national director of surface transport, said the government wants to reduce expenditure on imported fuels, by switching to natural gas, but this all depends on the recommendations from the seminar.
Four buses operated by the Maputo public bus company, TPM, run on natural gas, "but so far the experience is very limited", said Issufo. "There is no legislation on the matter. There must be legislation on such matters as safety and technical inspection".
TPM managers say that the experience with the gas-fuelled buses is positive. The savings are dramatic. While diesel costs 35.35 meticais a litre, and petrol 41.62 meticais a litre, the equivalent amount of natural gas only costs 18 meticais (at current exchange rates, there are about 24.1 meticais to the US dollar).
In addition to the TPM buses, there are another 10 vehicles in the country powered by gas, according to Autogas, the company that distributes natural gas for vehicles.
Autogas manager Jahir Adamo says that his company has a pilot project to convert 150 vehicles to run on gas, including 90 of the privately owned minibuses that supply much of Maputo's passenger transport.
But the price of conversion is enormous. Adamo said that any citizen can go to Autogas and convert their vehicles to run on gas - but it will cost between 2,000 and 4,000 US dollars. For this sum, one can easily buy a second hand car in Maputo.
The seminar is supported by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development.
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