Zimbabwe sitting on 40 trillion cubic feet of potentially recoverable gas in Lupane as government fails to secure an investor

ZIMBABWE is sitting on huge amounts of methane gas discovered in Lubimbi area, Lupane, Matabeleland North province but has over the years failed to secure an investor to kick-start the project.

Opposition legislator Thokozani Khupe told the deputy Speaker Tsitsi Gezi this Tuesday that the methane gas in Lupane – Lubimbi area has a capacity of generating about 6 000 megawatts, which is more than enough for the country with an excess which can be exported to other countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

Zimbabwe has been struggling with power cuts for over a decade now.

On a point of national interest, Khupe said the untapped methane gas could rescue the country from shortages of electricity being experienced due to low water levels to generate electricity in Kariba.

Water levels in Kariba have drastically dropped to only 8.5 % of usable water that can generate electricity due to poor rains in the SADC region over the past few years.

“The Lupane-Luvimbi methane gas project has been on the cards for a long time now and was granted a national project status in 2007.

“The sad reality is that up to now, 17 years later, nothing has come out except talk only. It is high time the government moves away from what I call ‘talk only and no action’ and translate talk into action in so far as this project is concerned,” Khupe said.

She added the project, had seen a lot of ribbon cutting events meant to kick start it but to this day, it remains a pipe dream.

“This mineral resource is worth billions of dollars and has a potential of generating thousands of jobs in line with NDS1, which anticipated creating at least 760 000 jobs in five years. This is over and above generating energy,” Khupe highlighted.

According to findings, she said Zimbabwean gas reserves were estimated to be more than those of other countries in the region.

“It is estimated that Zimbabwe has more than 40 trillion cubic feet of potentially recoverable gas in Lupane – Lubimbi area.

“The methane gas in Lupane-Lubimbi area has a capacity of generating about 6 000 megawatts, which is more than enough for Zimbabwe with an excess which can be exported to other countries in the SADC region.

“I, therefore, implore the government to put more effort in finding a big investor on a Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) basis who can deposit US$20 billion to Zimbabwean coffers and then extract the gas for about 25 years and then transfer it to Zimbabwe.

“This will avail resources towards developing our country and at the same time, we will have enough energy for industry and other sectors to operate efficiently and effectively,” she added.

During a Question-and-Answer session on Wednesday, Khupe raised a question over the matter and the Energy Minister Edgar Moyo told the House that the government lacked resources for the project as no investor had come up-front to take it up.

“We do not have an investor for the project. We are working on securing an investor and kick-start the project,” Moyo told Khupe.

During the SADC Industrialisation Week ahead of SADC Summit recently, the African Development Bank ((AFDB) urged SADC leadership to come up with one project that can be funded for the benefit of the region.

Zimbabwe needs less than 3000 MW of electricity per day.

Moyo said the government was now focusing on renewable energy such as solar and wind.

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