By Sanday Chongo Kabange
Fluctuations in the prices of crude oil on the global market are persistently upsetting infant economies such as that of Zambia. These sky-rocketing prices of crude are a quandary that Zambia and other non-oil producing countries have to overcome year in-year out.
In 2008, US$60 for a barrel of crude oil was something for the future. Now 2010 this is all history and the price of oil a barrel is presently hovering between US$90 and US$110.World oil production has reached a plateau while consumption is going up daily. Price increases are the balancing factor and in Zambia, the prices of petroleum products have gone up despite occasional adjustments by the Energy Regulation Board.
Zambia solely depends on imports for its crude oil supplies. The overdependence on crude oil imports is exacerbated by a deepening energy crunch that is paralysing industries and darkening neighbourhoods across the country.
Oil marketing companies and the nation’s sole electricity utility, ZESCO Limited are not meeting demand for petroleum and electric energy in the country. This, experts say is as a result of accelerated growth in economic sectors like manufacturing, construction, mining, tourism and agriculture.
Zambia’s crude oil imports are mainly from Middle East and the recent discoveries of oil and gas deposits in some parts of Zambia, have not yet yielded anything tangible. However, a Ministerial Petroleum Committee has been appointed by President Rupiah Banda to oversee developments leading to the exploration of oil and gases in Zambia’s North-West and Eastern regions. The earlier committee that was appointed by late President Levy Mwanawasa was dissolved after initiating the establishment of the Petroleum (Exploration and Petroleum) Act of 2008.
At a global level, unfolding events in the fossil fuel industry have over the past years changed the scenario of plenty and cheap fossil fuels in view of diminishing new oil reserve discoveries against existing oil reserves. It was reported that there were in fact no oil reserves discovered in 2007. The geo-political disturbances currently being experienced is some oil producing countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are increasing the expense of extracting the remaining fossil fuel reserves. This is also compounded by the complexities of geographical formations that are much deeper to extract crude.
With ever-rising cost of crude oil and increasing demand for energy, the need for cheaper, quicker and environmentally friendly form of energy that can be produced locally has raised hopes among the energy hungry Zambians.
This form of energy is currently taking centre stage in many international symposia including the crucial American elections, which eventually ushered in that country’s first African-American President, Barack Obama.
During the previous climate change talks in Bali in Indonesia, Bonn in Germany, Poznan in Poland and Copenhagen in Denmark, the issue of clean, environmentally friendly energy has been very hot and topical. With all these international debates in motion, some Zambian energy scientists and researchers have suggested that bio-energy or bio-fuel be the next alternative to cushion the country’s energy inefficiencies.
Different scientists and researchers have conducted, and in some cases concluded research on various plants that have large capacity to produce high grade bio-diesel, bio-oil and bio-energy. Some of these plants include sugar cane, sweet sorghum, jatropha, maize, soy bean and different varieties of nuts. But the concern is that while some of these plants might have the capacity to produce bio-energy, they are also highly favoured food crops as well as cash crops. Such crops are currently being discouraged in bio-fuel production by international agencies such as the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme.
In the Southern African Development Community, regional demand for diesel alone is 15 million tonnes per year, out of which Zambia consumes 300, 000 tonnes.
The never ending frenzy in bio-fuels to progressively replace the void left by diminishing fossil fuels has given rise to a global hunt for economically and environmentally viable feedstock. Jatropha, for bio-fuel production has emerged as one of the preferred contenders in countries like Zambia. Boasting 40% of the southern Africa’s entire water body and huge chunks of fertile land, jatropha large scale cultivation is currently underway in most parts of Zambia. This is in spite the plant having been growing as a wild bush as far back as the 1900 in Southern and North-Western Provinces of Zambia. Jatropha is believed to have been introduced into Zambia about 1850; at the same time other crops such as maize.
The controversy regarding jatropha had initially hit a brick wall after then Republican President Levy Mwanawasa announced at a State House event that his administration would not allow the cultivation of jatropha until environmental and health myths related to the plant were thoroughly investigated and ascertained. It was during this time that a team of research scientists from the University of Zambia, National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research, Environmental Council of Zambia, Centre for Energy, Environment and Engineering Zambia Limited, Energy and Environment Concerns for Zambia and Biofuels Association of Zambia undertook independent research studies that verified that jatropha had no environmental or health hazards. The studies in fact revealed that jatropha had been growing in Zambia for centuries.
An analysis conducted by Bio-fuels Association of Zambia Chairperson Thomson Sinkala and Andrew Chitembo, on behalf of the International Labour Organisation’s Business Development Services Project, said jatropha can, among other things, be used to produce bio-diesel that can sustain the country and assist in escalating prices of diesel in the country.
The analysis titled, “An analysis of global Jatropha industry and a case study of the local value chain in Zambia” highlights the enormous potential that Zambia has to produce various products from jatropha. The analysis, for example, states that jatropha can, among other things, contribute to poverty reduction through both the creation of income generation activities for the various players along the value chain and the provision of solutions to local village level or rural energy needs, thereby making the country more productive.
“It is necessary however, in order to optimise the chances of these benefits to occur, to understand the key driver for the current increased level of interest in jatropha that is the price of petroleum diesel. For the establishment of jatropha as a commercial crop that can generate benefits for all, benefits must equitably accrue to all along the jatropha value chain, from soil to diesel, as the disenfranchisement of any of the chain players will break the chain be no jatropha industry. Even though all the benefits of jatropha articulated in the analysis have been known all along, without this economic trigger, the price of diesel, these benefits have remained potential benefits,” reads the analysis in part.
Jatropha is reported to have more than 1600 uses, much of which is the glycerine extract which itself has about 1500 uses. All parts of the plant including the whole plant, roots, leaves, latex, seeds, bark and twigs are used for applications ranging from medicines, fuels to environment control.
Traditional liquid fuel processor in Zambia’s mining town of Ndola, Indeni Petroleum Refinery might not without repositioning itself be a major player in the biodiesel sector – that is quickly getting commercialised in Zambia. Some key players like Marli Investment Limited, D1 Oils, Southern BioPower, North Western BioPower, Oval Biofuels and other mining companies like Kansanshi Mining PLC are all well placed to stake the claims to the potential of the jatropha market that is locally available.
Jatropha is currently being used on a large scale in neighbouring Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Madagascar, Egypt, Mali, India, Brazil, China and Thailand to produce bio-diesel as well as other products such as organic fertiliser and lamp oil.
Brazilian authorities have expressed interest to assist Zambia jump start its bio-fuel industry. Brazilian embassy officials in Zambia are reported to have been holding consultative meetings with stakeholders such as the Biofuels Association of Zambia. This is with a view of assisting the Zambian market improve its bio-fuel market. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of bio-fuel and jatropha is highly grown in Brazil for similar purposes.
While jatropha has remained as one of the most competitive alternative feedstock for bio-diesel production worldwide, another crop that has shown potential for oil production in Zambia is palm oil. Palm oil is largely grown in Luapula Province of Zambia. However, environmental concerns relating to the depletion of the rain forests in some countries where it is used for bio-diesel production, leaves Jatropha as the major growth feedstock for biodiesel.