12 Feb 2017

Ministry of Mineral resources, Green Technology and Energy Security is inundated with requests and proposals from the private sector to develop a Coal to Liquids (CTL) plant in Botswana with Botswana Oil Limited (BOL) being the anchor customer of petroleum products.
Answering a question in Parliament on Wednesday, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development, Mr Nonofo Molefhi said they were currently at concept stage with no detailed studies conducted yet.
“The project schedule and timeliness will become realistic once the consultants are on board, and that will be this month. The private sector also continues to explore avenues of implementing the project,” he said.
Minister Molefhi said a CTL facility with a capacity of 33 000 bbl/day would be used as a basis, adding that ’it is estimated that approximately 5000 staff will be required to manage and operate the 33 000 bbl/day CTL facility while around 15 000 people will be required during the construction phase.’
He said the coal to liquids project requires substantial investment and it is estimated that a plant which would meet the country’s current annual demand of 1.2 billion litres of petroleum products could cost between US$3-4 billion over a four to five year construction period.
He said, “though this would replace the current importation of approximately US$1 billion of petroleum products annually, the expenditure would be too high for government under the current financial pressures.”
Government, he said, recognises the importance of this project to the economy, as it would contribute significantly to economic diversification. He added that in response to calls from the private sector to develop the CTL project in Botswana, his ministry tasked BOL to facilitate the private sector in the realisation of the project.
Parliament was informed that the ministry has developed a Pre-Qualification criteria which would be used to select companies that could be facilitated in order to realise the project, noting that the Pre-Qualification notice would be on media platforms soon.
Minister Molefhi explained that it would be private sector led, with government’s role limited to being that of facilitator, adding that BOL has engaged experts in the field to provide Technical Advisory Services.
The location of the plant would be greatly influenced by the availability of raw materials, adding the distance to the plant is critical to keeping production costs low and manageable.
The ministry, through BOL, he noted would work closely with the private sector and other sectors of government to ensure that the project addresses the country’s current challenges.
Giving a brief background on the project, Mr Molefhi said the CTL project entails converting coal into liquid fuel using several liquefaction processes, which could be divided into two general categories being Indirect Liquefaction and Direct Liquefaction.
He said developing a coal to liquids project was a mega project by any global standard and involved the integration of complex technology and process plants to achieve a successful project delivery and commissioning.
MP for Selebi-Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse had asked the minister to update the House on BOL project. ENDS