Botswana’s fuel supplies from neighboring South Africa have been slashed as a result of a strike at the Tarlton oil depot which provides more than 75% of Botswana’s fuel requirement, according to the country’s Minerals, Energy, and Water Affairs Minister Pontashego Kedikilwe.
“Companies which have been using the Tarlton depot to source fuel have made arrangements to source some fuel from depots not operated by Transnet,” Kedikilwe said.
However, Botswana has been trying to decrease its dependency on South Africa as supplies were unpredictable even before the strike, including South Africa decreasing the amount of coal exports in 2008. The country is planning to achieve 100% self-sufficiency in electricity generation by the end of its National Development Plan 10 (NDP 10) term which began in April 2009 and ends March 2015. In order to reach this goal, renewable energy will be placed at the forefront of its energy activities (Botswana Aims to be Self-Sufficient by 2015).
In addition, Zimbabwe and Botswana signed an inter-governmental MoU at the end of November for the restoration of the Bulawayo Power Station. The two southern African countries concluded a deal in October that would signify the revival of the power plant by June 2010 (Zimbabwe and Botswana to Power Up).
The Tarlton strike could push renewable energy to the forefront a lot sooner than Botswana had originally anticipated.
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