By EPN Reporter
MBABANE – Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Prince Lonkhokhela has met Taiwan Ambassador to Eswatini Jeremy Liang to discuss the strategic oil reserve.
The meeting took place yesterday and it has been fruitful. The meeting was focused on building the Strategic Oil Reserve at Phuzumoya. During the meeting with the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the Kingdom of Eswatini, the minister was in the company of the Principal Secretary Dorcas Dlamini and the Principal Energy Officer Candy Stromvig.
The country currently holds no fuel stock reserves, bulk fuel storage infrastructure in the country is very limited, and this makes the country economically vulnerable should any disruption occur in the supply chain outside or inside its borders.
The Strategic Oil Reserve Depot is a national facility aimed at securing the country’s fuel supply for a fixed number of days, to guard against the economic impacts of fuel supply disruptions from the market.
The Eswatini National Petroleum Company has been set up to manage the Startegic Oil Reserve, among other duties. The Petroleum Act of 2020 provides that ENPC can identify, build, own, manage crude oil and petroleum logistics investments, including storage and handling terminals.
The government company can also secure, market, trade in crude oil and petroleum products. Its objectives include carrying out the business of supplying and distributing petroleum and petroleum products into and from the Kingdom of Eswatini; to carry on the business of importing and exporting petroleum and petroleum products into and from the Kingdom of Eswatini.
The ENPC is working, for now, to ensure that Eswatini has fuel security for at least three months. PS Dorcas Dlamini was quoted last week by the local media houses, stating that the country was in dire need of the Strategic Oil Reserve. She said the facility was going to help in making sure that the country did not run out of fuel.
Dlamini said this in response to a fuel crisis that hit the country, as it experienced shortage of fuel in several filling stations. Dlamini said during such times, the filling stations could go and buy fuel at Phuzumoya, where the facility would be located.
