Madagascar Oil has announced the first use of the Tsimiroro heavy fuel oil on the Mandroseza power plant, operated by US’s Symbion Power, in Antananarivo, on the Indian Ocean Island of Madagascar, Ecofin Agency reported.

Symbion Power’s Chief Operations Officer, Zelda Weitz, said: “we always planned to utilize local oil and we have used it for the first time and we have been successfully producing reliable power for over 18 hours per day. The cost of our power at Mandroseza is the lowest in the country,” according to Pan African Visions.

Tsimiroro is a large oil field in the onshore Morondava Basin of Madagascar discovered south of the Bemolanga ultra heavy oil field and south of the town of Morafenobe. The oil was found in the Isalo and Amboloando formations. Madagascar Oil is the license holder of the field and has described it as being a heavy oil field with a significant volume of as much as 9.3b barrels of heavy oil in place.

Symbion Power is an independent US power producer with investments in power generation in the African continent. The company has ongoing activities in Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Nigeria.