Nhamatanda, Mozambique, Sept. 2, 2026 (Lusa) - The Mozambican president said that the two new oil pipeline pumping stations, on which construction work begins on Wednesday, are a «true economic artery» linking Mozambique to Zimbabwe, and called for further investment to connect to Southern Africa.
«This pipeline carries fuel, but it also carries cooperation, trust and interdependence between our countries and peoples. It is therefore a true economic lifeline linking Mozambique to Zimbabwe, which contributes to our region's energy security,» said Daniel Chapo.
He was speaking in Nhamatanda, in the centre of the country, at the launch – alongside his Zimbabwean counterpart, Emmerson Mnangagwa – of the construction of two new pumping stations in the provinces of Sofala and Manica, which will increase the pipeline's transport capacity by 67% to five million cubic metres per year to meet regional demand, as part of a project by the Mozambique-Zimbabwe Pipeline Company (CPMZ).
Chapo said that the construction of this infrastructure, due for completion by the end of 2027, represents a «new leap forward» in pipeline transport to meet the needs of future generations.
«This means that we are not dealing with isolated investments. We are dealing with a coordinated vision of integration, logistics and energy between our two countries and our two peoples,» he said.
The Mozambican president also stated that these projects symbolise the efforts the Government has been making to make the ports – and, above all, the Beira corridor – increasingly important in the context of regional development.
«We want to gradually transform Mozambique's corridors from mere transit corridors into genuine development corridors. Industrialisation, trade and regional integration – these are our visions,» he said.
«We want industries, logistics centres, water facilities, processing centres, special economic zones, industrial duty-free zones, services, small and medium-sized enterprises, dry ports and new employment opportunities for our young people and Mozambican women to emerge along our corridors,» he added.
The 294-kilometre-long Beira–Feruka oil pipeline in Zimbabwe forms part of the Beira Corridor, which links the Port of Beira to Zimbabwe.
According to previously released information, the increase in capacity is being synchronised with the modernisation of the Petrozim Line between Feruka and Harare, creating a seamless, high-capacity energy corridor stretching from the Port of Beira into the heart of Southern Africa.
In the same remarks, Chapo stated that these infrastructure projects represent the realisation of African economic integration within the context of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which, he emphasised, must evolve from a political aspiration into an economic reality.
«Our political borders must not become economic borders. We will maintain administrative borders. We will maintain political borders, but we will do away with economic borders because we are all brothers. We need to build a Southern Africa where our countries are increasingly interconnected, where the strengths of each economy serve the development of the other economies in the SADC region,» said Chapo.
He added that only such integration, built on regional infrastructure, will transform political freedom into economic prosperity, promising to continue strengthening cooperative relations with Zimbabwe.
CPMZ was established in the second half of the 1950s, at that time under the name Mozambique-Rhodesia Pipeline Company, with the aim of developing large-scale infrastructure, starting from the port of Beira, capable of meeting the region's fuel needs, particularly those of Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia, which, at the time, were included in the Central African Federation.
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