10 Mar 2015

Botswana Oil will, as part of ensuring efficiency and security of petroleum products, diversify from relying solely on South Africa as single source, marketing and communications manager Ms Ludo Mokotedi has said. 

Briefing Central District full council session on March 9, Ms Mokotedi said her company would source petroleum products from Namibia and Mozambique, despite the latter being a bit far from Botswana. 

However, negotiations were nder way to mitigate costs to ensure that Botswana got value for money.  The move to diversify from RSA will curb petroleum products disruptions in the country as experienced in 2009 when truck drivers in RSA went on strike. 

Ms Mokotedi said in their effort to become a significant player in the petroleum sector, Botswana oil intended to avoid running dry of petroleum products while tapping on the opportunities that might arise in the long run. 

The commercial entity will start off trading in petrol, diesel and paraffin while exploring the possibilities of offering jet fuel in future, the marketing and communications manager has revealed.

She said in the meantime, the company is growing organization’s capacity and developing infrastructure to increase capacity.

Currently, the company is looking into the possibility of developing storage depot in Walvis Bay, Namibia with Namibian Oil Company, a move which would result in the development of a storage depot in Ghanzi as the gateway, she said.

Botswana Oil will also develop storage facilities in Francistown and Palapye amongst a host of earmarked places. The Rasesa depot, the second largest in the country, is expected to store about 220 million litres of petroleum in its full capacity. 

On other issues of development, the company will capacitate citizens to participate meaningfully as well as benefitting from the development.  ENDS