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High fuel prices compromising economic growth, says Konga

High fuel prices compromising economic growth, says Konga
By Joan Chirwa in Solwezi
Tuesday April 15, 2008 [04:00]

THE increasing price of crude oil on the international market is greatly compromising Zambia’s growing economy, energy minister Kenneth Konga has said. And Konga said the government would soon come up with a licensing committee under the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) for the biofuels industry, considering its potential as an alternative source of energy.

Konga, who is on a tour of North Western Province, said with the sky-rocketing price of crude oil, biofuels would prove to be a cheaper source of energy for the country.

“A barrel of crude oil is over US $100 now. It was around US $80 a few months ago, meaning there is an increase of about US $31 over the last six months. Where will this end?” Konga asked. “Zambia is not yet a producer of oil and the increasing price of crude on the international market is a big threat to our economy.”

Konga said one effective way of mitigating the high costs of crude oil was to promote the biofuels sector which is still in its infancy stage.

“At the rate we are going with the conventional fuels, the bio fuels are proving to be a good source of energy,” Konga said.

He, however, said the government and stakeholders should exercise caution in the production of biofuels in order to avoid shortages of food crops.

The government is currently in the process of formulating a database for the biofuels sector for easy collaboration with stakeholders.

“What we would like to see is a coordinated approach on the cultivation of jatropha and that is why government is requesting various potential and existing members of the Biofuels Association of Zambia (BAZ) to supply the Ministry of Energy with information on the sector,” Konga said.

“And some of these energy crops such as maize, soya and cassava have a direct impact on the country’s food production and consumption and that is why we need information as the ministry on how much of these crops are intended to be produced for biofuels.

Institutions such as the World Bank are already concerned about what is going on in terms of having food crops used for biofuel production.”

And Konga said the government would soon formulate a law requiring players in the sector to get licensing from the ERB before they could produce biofuels.

“We will soon come up with a law that for one to get into the bio fuels sector, they will need licensing from the ERB,” said Konga.

Labels: BIOFUELS, DEVELOPMENT, ERB, FUEL, KENNETH KONGA

posted by MrK @ 5:15 AM