ZIMBABWE’S petroleum players are expected to comply with new mandatory blending levels by April next year as government pushes to contain the country’s import bill.
Opening the First Session of the 8th Parliament in the capital on Tuesday, President Robert Mugabe said plans were underway to meet the E20 blending requirements. E20 contains 20% ethanol and 80% petrol.
The development comes at a time the country has fast become a net importer with official figures showing that imports are trebling exports as the trade deficit continues to widen.
Last month, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) gave fuel industry players a 60-day ultimatum to clear all their unleaded stocks and put correct labelling of all ethanol blends, failure of which licences will be revoked.
“Final steps will be taken to fully operationalise the ARDA-Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant which, alongside various private power generating initiatives, should significantly augment the country’s power supply.
“Measures are afoot to ensure that during the first quarter of 2014, the blending of petrol with ethanol will have reached the E20 mandatory blending levels,” Mugabe said.
“Such a move will ensure fuel self-sufficiency, and more importantly, the project will trigger incremental job creation, thereby creating decent livelihoods for local communities and other citizens.”
The $600 million Green Fuel ethanol project in August resumed production of anhydrous ethanol for blending with unleaded petrol at its plant in Chisumbanje, two years after it went idle as government contested its ownership structures.
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Production of ethanol at the plant was stopped in February 2011 over the company’s shareholding which was not in sync with the country’s indigenisation laws.
Under the country’s indigenisation and empowerment laws, foreign-owned firms should sell 51% stakes to locals.
Before government assumed a controlling shareholding, the project was a 20-year build-operate-and-transfer between ARDA and Billy Rautenbach’s Macdom and Ratings.
