By CHATULA KANGALI –
TWO Mozambican firms have expressed interest to build an oil pipeline from Mozambique to Zambia.
Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe confirmed the development in an interview yesterday.
Mozambique is one of the countries in Africa that has oil and natural gas.
Ms Mwanakatwe said the Mozambique-based companies had expressed interest to build an oil  pipeline from that country to Zambia.
“The two investors want to build an oil pipeline from Mozambique to Zambia. We are still waiting for feedback to give us a clear position of the establishment of the oil pipeline,” she said.
Ms Mwanakatwe added that a local investor, Basali Ba Liseli Resources was on course with its plans to build an oil pipeline from Angola to Lusaka.
She said the company was currently working on modalities of the pipeline regulation and also waiting for land where the line would pass to be identified.
Ms Mwanakatwe said she was in Angola recently where she signed a trade agreement and that the issue of an oil pipeline was highlighted.
She said the oil pipeline would run from Sonaref Refinery in Lobito, in Angola, to Lusaka.
“The country has continued to attract investment in different sectors of the economy, and we are happy that most of these investments are private sector driven.
“The construction of other oil pipelines in Zambia will make the country a regional hub of petroleum products,” she said.
Zambia currently imports all its petroleum requirements, mainly from the Middle East, through the port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.