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| volume 12, issue #21 - Thursday, November 22, 2007 | |
Will Mozambique become a biofuel superpower?
30-10-07 Investment committed to
biofuel projects in Mozambique totals $ 700 mm, which will put the
country at the cutting edge of clean energy production in Africa.
According
to The Investor, a weekly publication of AIM, Central African Mining
and Exploration Company (CAMEC) pledged to invest $ 510 mm over the
next few years in producing ethanol from sugar cane.
Until
CAMEC's investment was announced, the main biofuel project in the
country was that of state oil company Petromoc and agricultural
cooperative Cofamosa, worth an estimated $ 125 mm. Another project
being carried out by the government includes spending $ 14 mm on a
factory for ethanol production.
Mozambique Biofuel Industries
(MBI), owned by South African investors, plans to invest some $ 18 mm
and more recently, Canada's Energem Resources announced it would invest
up to $ 5.5 mm on a jatropha plantation.
Mozambique
has only recently begun to understand that it is a "biofuel
superpower," it is reported. Its agro-ecological
resources allow for the production of a wide range of efficient energy
crops, including cassava, sugarcane and jatropha, AIM said.
Analysts
affiliated with the International Energy Agency estimate that the
country can produce around 7 ExaJoules (EJ) of biofuels sustainably.
Mozambique currently consumes around 590,000 tons of oil products per
year, the bulk being diesel, which equates to around 0.18 EJ.
Achieving
full energy independence is well within reach. When it comes to the
availability of land for energy crops, the country currently uses
around 4.3 mm hectares out of a total of 63.5 mm hectares of potential
arable land, or 6.6 %.
Moreover, some 41 mm hectares of
poor-quality land are available for the production of energy crops that
require few inputs and are not suitable for food production.