eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
Kensys Gas, one of the fastest growing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) suppliers in Zimbabwe, has been on an aggressive expansion drive which has seen the company growing its filling facilities to 60 across the country, according to operations director Ronald Ndoro said.
The expansion drive has been largely driven by surging usage of LPG in Zimbabwe, which peaked at 56 million kilogrammes last year.
The increase in demand for LPG, even in the countryside, has been largely a result of frequent electricity shortages and its general acceptance as an alternative source of heating.
“The uptake is not only in urban areas, but also outlying areas and this is partly due to increased awareness by individual companies and ZERA (Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe).
Ndoro was addressing a Zambian delegation that was in the country early this week on a fact-finding mission to understand the success factors that led to a massive increase in the uptake of LPG in Zimbabwe.
The meeting was held at Kensys Gas storage facility in Harare where the Zambian delegation also had an opportunity to tour the plant. The delegation, which comprised officials from Zambia’s energy ministry and Energy Regulation Board also toured NOIC’s fuels storage and ethanol blending facilities the Masasa depot.
“We are targeting all the markets; from low end to high end and the demand is encouraging,” Ndoro said.
With LPG demand continue surging, Zimbabwe is investing in strategic storage facilities in a bid to ensure uninterrupted supplies. State-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOIC) is looking to commission tanks with a storage capacity of 500 tonnes during the first quarter of 2023 and raise the capacity to 2 000 by year-end.
ZERA senior petroleum engineer Andrew Gura said the strategic storage facility would help Zimbabwe boost energy security given the growing demand.
“Initially, people were scared (to use LPG) but there is general acceptance of the gas as a transition fuel, to close the gap from dirty fuel to cleaner energy and we need strategic stocks. The demand is going up and last year, we peaked at 56 million tonnes.
“So they are here (Zambian delegation) to take home lessons (on) our standards and the regulations and exposing them to what we have because they are also expecting huge LPG uptake,” said Gura.
“They want to familiarize themselves with our systems; they have been impressed and what to replicate, but at the same time we are also learning from them.”
Mr Gura said Zimbabwe had never reported “shocking accidents, very comparable if not better than South Africa” due to increased awareness, effective regulatory enforcement and training programmes that have resulted in the safe usage of LPG.
Zambia assistant director Mafayo Ziva in the ministry of energy their country was looking to boost the uptake of LPG to take away pressure from the electricity grid.
“Zimbabwe, and ZERA in particular has been our partner and we have a lot to learn,” he said. “We need to learn and seen how Zimbabwe has managed to boost uptake.”
Last year, Zambia consumed nearly 8 000 tonnes of LPG
