Zimbabwe’s National Oil and Infrastructure Company’s CEO (NOIC), Wilfried Matukeni, said that the company will issue a tender for the construction of its 3m liter ethanol storage and handling facility in Harare. Matukeni added that the $6m thanol facility will be constructed at Mabvuku Depot, The Herald reported.

The ethanol storage and handling facility is part of three major projects the State-owned oil and infrastructure company is in the process of rolling out. NOIC will also construct a 2,000 tons LPG gas facility at the Mabvuku Depot and a Jet A1 re-fuelling storage and handling facility at Harare Airport, according to All Africa.

The facility comes as Zimbabwe desperately requires sufficient capacity for ethanol storage, which has mandatory blending threshold of 15%. Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority recently said Government had to stock up ethanol in 2016 to cater for supply deficits, usually caused by rainy season disruption of production.

In 2015, NOIC completed the installation of the Mabvuku loading gantry at a cost of million, which will significantly decongest its Msasa Depot.

The facility is a public private partnership with Sakunda Energy Private Limited. Furthermore, the company is planing to invest $20m over the a 18-month period.