CPMZ increases throughput capacity of the Beira Corridor oil pipeline

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CPMZ increases throughput capacity of the Beira Corridor oil pipeline

7:35 CAT | 27 May 2020

FILE - CPMZ owns and runs the pipeline that transports petrol, gasoil and jet fuel from Beira into or transiting through Zimbabwe. [File photo: CPMZ News]

The CPMZ pipeline is extremely well positioned to capture a substantial portion of the transport of refined petroleum products to the Mozambican hinterland.

Companhia do Pipeline Moçambique Zimbabwe (CPMZ) – the Mozambican company which specialises in the management of oil pipelines – owns and operates the Beira-Feruka stretch of the pipeline linking Beira to Harare. The additional stretch which joins Feruka to Harare is managed by Petrozim Line (PZL), a company controlled by the Government of Zimbabwe.

The CPMZ pipeline has been continuously in operation for over 38 years (since 1982) in line with the highest international standards. The exemplary interaction between the private sector and the Mozambican Government, which extends to the entire Board of Directors, has ensured a high-quality governance of the company at the top level, enabling excellent management practices and principles to go hand in hand with an overriding respect for the interests of the Mozambican state.

The company has over 240 highly qualified Mozambican and Zimbabwean managers and workers. CPMZ has been regularly investing in its entire infrastructure and in the training of its staff: the old pipeline, for example, has been completely refitted with a new pipe over the last ten years. Furthermore, CPMZ has always fulfilled every single transport request and even in the extreme situation after Cyclone Idai, the CPMZ staff had the necessary ability and skills to resume pumping in just 10 days.

The Beira-Harare pipeline, which currently supplies over 90% of the Zimbabwean market, is extremely well positioned to capture a substantial portion of the transport of refined oil products to the Mozambican hinterland, which consists of Zimbabwe and a number of inland southern African countries (Zambia, Malawi, and Katanga in the DRC).

CPMZ and the Government of Zimbabwe committed to achieving the common strategic goal of ensuring that the pipeline between Beira and Harare will be the preferred transporter of refined oil products to the southern African hinterland, making Harare the distribution centre that will serve this market.

To achieve this goal, CPMZ designed an ambitious expansion project in two phases with the goal of gradually increasing throughput capacity. The project allows for the capacity to keep up with the expected growth in demand, not only from Zimbabwe but also from the hinterland countries.

In December 2019, the CPMZ Board of Directors approved the beginning of the 1st stage of phase 1 of the expansion project – which will run for the next 18 months and which will involve the complete replacement of the two pumping stations at Beira and Maforga – raising the capacity of the pipeline from 2.2 to 3 million m3/year.

The 2nd stage of phase 1, which has already been studied in detail and which provides for the addition of two more satellite stations, will increase capacity to 5 million m3/year and will be implemented as soon as demand warrants it.

Phase 2 of CPMZ’s expansion project was designed for a setting of sustained demand in excess of 5 million m3/ year. By that time, CPMZ will have in place an entire infrastructure that will accommodate a far greater capacity through the replacement of the current 10-inch pipe by a larger one; the company will be in a position to make the replacement without needing to stop pumping, as it did in the past when it replaced the old pipe.

CPMZ’s board, aware of the strategic, economic and social importance of maintaining the company’s infrastructure in Mozambique as well as in Zimbabwe in perfect operating condition, has taken the necessary steps to respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic and confirmed its commitment to the project, although the schedule may have to be adjusted according to possible delays from suppliers.

Source: CPMZ News