Fuel-starved Zimbabwe buys part of pipeline: Report

Fuel-starved Zimbabwe has purchased a 21-kilometre stretch of an oil pipeline running through Mozambique to the eastern border city of Mutare as the authorities try to ensure a minimum supply of fuel, reports said Monday. The purchase of part of the 287-kilometre long pipeline that links Mutare to the coastal port of Beira, was made under an agreement that will allow Zimbabwe to continue using the line for the next 25 years, said the official Herald daily. It was not clear how much the Zimbabwe government paid to buy the portion. The pipeline was formerly under the control of Mozambiques state-run Companhia-do Pipeline Mozambique-Zimbabwe (CPMZ), the report said. The CPMZ will now have to rent Zimbabwes stretch of the line for an undisclosed fee, it noted. Zimbabwe has been singing the fuel blues since 2000, when the southern African countr's once-flourishing economy began to tip into crisis following the launch of a controversial programme of white land seizures. Almost all fuel stations are empty now following an order in July that petrol be sold at 60,000 Zimbabwe dollars, worth around 7 US cents at prevailing parallel market rates, a litre. Only a handful of stations sell fuel for coupons paid for in foreign currency by account holders outside the country. On the black market fuel sells at up to one million Zimbabwe dollars a litre, or 16 times the officially-ordered price. The pipeline was built in the 1960s. At full capacity, it can transport 1.2 billion litres of fuel per day. dpa rt ds