Investors eye Lupane Gas Project: Govt

POTENTIAL investors are reportedly eyeing a stake in the Lupane Gas Project, Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs and Devolution minister Richard Moyo has said.

Natural gas reserves were discovered in Lupane several years ago, but commercial exploitation has failed to take off despite government granting its exploration a national project status in 2007.

However, Moyo told NewsDay in an interview yesterday that several investors had expressed interest to invest into the Lupane Gas Project (LGP).

“A few business people have started to come in and they are saying they want to invest on LGP. That is all the information l can give you because the government later on decided that the project be handled by the mining ministry,” he said.

A few weeks ahead of the August 23 harmonised elections last year, government said it was still frantically looking for investors for the LGP.

Moyo said the government had not abandoned the search for investors, adding that the people who had been handed the project were just playing games and not doing their job, which has prompted government to start searching for new committed investors

Methane gas is mostly used in power generation and fertiliser production.

The resource is predominantly utilised in the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries, but a tale of unfulfilled promises for Lupane.-newsday