17 Mar 2020

The Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Mr Lefoko Moagi says he intends to table the Petroleum Products Bill as there is no legislation that governs and guides the operations of the petroleum industry.

Presenting his ministry’s over P1.7 billion budget proposals for 2020/21 financial year in Parliament on March 16, Mr Moagi said the existence of laws and regulations under this sub-sector would ease trade on petroleum products.

The minister further said he intended to review the Botswana Energy Regulatory Act (BERA) and the Mines and Minerals Act.

On employment creation, Minister Moagi explained that 3 437 people had been employed by the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) from the North West Transmission line and the construction of Ramotswa substation.

He said Jwaneng Cut 9 was envisaged to employ 1 153 people during 2020, of which 1 131 or 98 per cent would be citizens, adding currently there were only 501.

Morupule Coal Mine, he said, had started the development of an open cast mine and a coal wash plant and the project was expected to employ 630 people at its peak and it would also create 242 permanent jobs.

On energy security, the minister explained that all four units of Morupule A 132MW power station had been refurbished and were operational.

The Morupule B 600MW Defects Remediation Project has started under the contractor’s costs.

Minister Moagi explained that remedial works on the first unit started in June 2019 and was scheduled to be operating in September this year. He said the remaining three units would be remedied in turn and the  project was scheduled to be completed in January 2023.

In addition, Mr Moagi said government was also investing in green technology and the project included the development of large and small scale solar photovoltaic generation and upon its completion in 2023, renewable energy would constitute 17 per cent of total electricity generation.

Minister Moagi said plans to procure the development of 2x50MW solar power plants from Independent Power Producers (IPP) were ongoing.

The minister said 426 out of 492 villages had been electrified, adding that during the 2019/20 financial year, 44 villages were connected to the national grid while network extensions were currently going on in 72 villages.

About the diamond industry, the minister explained that it had so far been a rough year for rough diamonds since the beginning of this year, as demand remained weak resulting in a cumulative slow-moving stock, hence lower profits.

He said Debswana produced 23.3 million carats during the year ended in December 2019 and sold 22 million carats against a prior year sales of 23 million.

Minister Moagi stated the aggregate sale of diamonds from De Beers Global Sightholders Sales was US$4.04 billion compared to US$5.3 billion in 2018.

Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) sold about US$440 million worth of rough diamonds in 2019 compared to US$480 million in 2018.

Meanwhile, Lucara Botswana had an exceptional year as their sales increased to US$330 million compared to US$175 million in 2018, he added.

Going into the specifics of his ministry’s budgetary estimates of over P1.7 billion for the 2020/21 financial year, Mr Moagi said P711 500 170 was for the recurrent budget while P1 088 359 606 was for development budget.

Mr Moagi explained that of the development budget, P500 million would go to Botswana Power Corporation Tariff Support Programme to cushion BPC against non-cost reflective tariffs and as well as meet the payment for the ICBM loan.

The second largest share of over P383 million would be allocated to the Power Generation and Distribution programme and major projects to benefit from this allocation include the North West Transmission Grid Connector and the Backbone Power Transmission projects.Minister Moagi said the Rural Electrification Programme would get P118 million. ENDS