Summit Communications : Could you give us an outline of Congo's energy-giving resources?

Minister of Energy, Mr. Mwanahembe : Our country has countless potentials. First of all, we have the Congo River which has a navigable stretch of over 2000 kilometers. It is the next largest river in the world after the Amazon River, and has a great number of tributaries and confluents that link the whole country together. We have also several waterfalls that provide the nation with great potentials to develop electrical energy in order to supply the entire country and even a great part of Africa.
We also have forestry resources which constitutes 90% of the African forest. In the Eastern part, bordering Rwanda, the Lake Kivu abounds in methane gas. In the Northern part of Katanga, lays coal, and numerous mineral resources such as uranium, cobalt and others. The sun as well as the wind is a source of abounding energy. In short, all kinds of possible energies are found in the Congo. In order to give you an accurate idea, we have 100,000 MW (megawatts) of hydro-electrical energy throughout the country, that is to say 13% of energy resources of the planet. The 100,000 MW represents the potentials in terms of electrical energy in the whole country. Nowadays, the hydro electrical site of Inga located in the Southeast of the country can produce 44,000MW, which adds up to three times the potential energy of "3 Gorges site" in China, the biggest site in the world under construction. We also have oil, the productivity of which is still very small compared with Angola's that extracts one million barrels a year. The Democratic Republic of Congo produces 350,000 barrels and our production is hardly 30,000 barrels. It goes to show only the coastal production, but there is also oil found in the central basin and in the east part of the country towards the borders with Uganda. Yet, we are seeking partners for its exploitation.

Summit Communications: How many partnerships have been established so far?

Minister of Energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: We are always in search of partners. That is why the president of the Republic and the vice-president in charge of finance and economy has travelled in Asia. Lots of investors have shown their interest mainly Indian companies as well as Chinese, American and Japanese companies are present to exploit oil.

Summit Communications: Could you give us an outline us about the geopolitical size of energy value of the country?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: The Congo is one the state members of UPDA. It has been shown that hydro electrical potentials in Central Africa represent 52% of the whole continent. Most of the 52% are concentrated in Inga so much so that we receive many demands from different countries that request to be interconnected to 5 business (commercial) markets of Western Africa called "Energy Pool". This pool springs from Inga. Therefore, we are planning to set interconnections from South Africa via Angola and Namibia and other one via Zimbabwe and Botswana. Another connection will be extended towards Northern Africa: Egypt through RCA and Sudan. However, we are planning to build highways of interconnections. Meanwhile in Kinshasa, we are holding talks with either UPDA or DAC (Central Africa Energy Pool) in order to end up concerning international interconnections real projects.

Summit Communications: What are the current operating links?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: Presently, we are interconnected with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Zambia, Rwanda and Burundi through the Ruzizi Dam. Actually, we are virtually interconnected with all bordering countries, but we need currently to strengthen the present connections because formerly the electrical.
There used to be a relatively small demand, but now as many factories have grown, these different countries require a larger quantity of energy. Furthermore, companies will open factories in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa and Angola. Then, we have to charge cabling sections or use optical fibres straightforward because there is an ever increasing demand of our energy as many factories would like to be connected to these networks.

Summit Communications: What are the advantages that are beneficial to the Congo profit in terms of natural resources in relation with other countries?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: South Africa does need our energy because within two years, it will exceed consumption capacity. The increase in factories implies additional energy. Yet, Congo presently doesn't have sufficient industries and even though it could, they lack having operating means of these industries. We potentially have now 44,000 MW energy power but only 1,765MW are exploited at Inga site 1 (365MW) and Inga site 2 (1,400 MW), which only represents 2.5 % of Inga potentials. The overall national energy power exploited is roughly estimated at about 2,500 MW out of 100,00MW that the whole country can produce. Therefore, the consumption of energy power for the country represents 4 % of what we can produce. However, along with our partners we can set up again Inga site 3, which will produce again 3,500MW and we can build the "Great Inga" that is supposed to produce 39,0000 MW in addition to existing facilities.

Summit Communications : In terms of strategy, are the electrical resources more important than the others mainly the mining resources?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: I hope they are highly more important than other mining resources because they can be exceedingly beneficial for the country. Essentially these resources provide political stability, mainly because everyone will desire to protect the Great Inga, and the country will then be secured. The problem will settle for itself and will be considered as a Common Heritage. Thus, it is profitable to us to see that Inga becomes a "Guarantee of Peace" all over Africa and that will gather everybody.

Summit Communications : What are the country resources as regards to hydrocarbons like gas or oil?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: We have tremendous potentialities. In the central basin, we have oil that is insufficiently exploited thus far. Obviously, preliminary exploitations have already started but we are bound to keep on for the moment with oil from the coastal basin side. But the exploitation in the Lower Congo province is very small ( 30,000 baril per day). Millions of dollars are available from our partners but the exploitation is still very small. Companies are contacting us in order to intensify the exploitation and exploration on that coast because there is a part that is still not exploited. This exploitation is done off-shore and on-shore. It's an area covering 6000 square metres. One side is in the ocean and the other one on dry land, but the reserve on off-shore is about 80M of barrels. However, we have 20 million barrels on-shore. To sum up, 100 M barrels are probably available in the coastal basin. But we have also gases associated with petroleum (oil), burnt gas with torchlight (procession). Besides, an American company is interested in its exploitation. But up to now, gas is flying up in the air and it's a useless loss of millions and millions of dollars. We possess rare gas namely methane gas in Kivu Lake as well as bitumen derived from petroleum, in the Lower Congo, which are not exploited and are estimated at 14 million tons. Its exploitation can facilitate to renovate roads because it is made of asphalt sand.

Summit Communications: We have learnt that the gas which in Kivu Lake has the peculiarity to be the only gas found in the water. Would you confirm its peculiarity?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: Absolutely right. But we need to manage to extract it out of the water and no survey to date has been performed in order to assess its extraction cost. But it requires a great technology. Lake Kivu abounds in this sort of gas.

Summit Communications: Let us revert to the issue of Inga dam. Would you give us a general view of the potentials of Inga Dam and the reasons which are a setback to its development?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: Our production capacity is 1,765 MW. In terms of obstacles, we have mainly financial constraints. In fact, Inga I was built in 1972 and Inga 2 in 1980; therefore the equipment has become old. We cannot keep on doing the upkeep of the equipment because we must be able to rehabilitate it. And the cost is rather high; roughly 500 million dollars. Apart from fixing the water "wheels", we must unclog the channel that is filled with the sand for 32 years. It is clogged with 60 million cubic metres of sand, preventing the "wheels" to operate properly. We need to fill in all the cracks in the infrastructure of civil engineering and then succeed building Inga 3, the cost of which is estimated to 3.5 billion dollars, that we don't have presently. On the other hand, the solution will be to negotiate with donors on public or private partnership and increase the number of companies. I would like to acknowledge the commitment of the World Bank that granted us a funding of 9 million dollars for reliability survey. But for the complete rehabilitation, we need a minimum of 20 million dollars per wheels. Now, we need 320 million dollars for 16 "wheels" and if we have access to the equipment to dredge and other additional works we'll reach virtually 500M dollars. As for the production, that's the whole picture. We also have a high-tension electrical transport line to launch again because the population has exceedingly increased and in fact the current line between Inga and Kinshasa is full, we must double the line. It requires roughly 80 M dollars in order to obtain the second electrical line as it is the wish of other partners. We always joint-venture partnership because the first partners will build, then exploit and finally transfer the investment through a certain number of years. We have created a joint-management company, and the investor is not supposed to make a loss, but the reimbursement will be done in the electrical exploitation.
Another rising problem is the distribution of the energy in Kinshasa; we should change cables, counters and transformers owing to the network out-of-date.

Summit Communications: What are the financial means that your ministry has to achieve the rehabilitation works of Inga dam and in electrical network in general?

Minister of energy; Mr. Mwanahembe: Unfortunately, the ministry has almost nothing. We have about a hundred million dollars that is imparted to the budget, but it is still virtually insufficient. The aforesaid amount can not meet the rehabilitation needs. We can just only meet the reliability need, that is to say, undertaking small works of maintenance and renovating ones, as replacing engine (lubricant) oil or small spare parts but the complete maintenance and rehabilitation requires a great amount of money.

Summit Communications: At the organizational level, what are state companies that are linked to your ministry and how do they operate?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: The National Company of Electricity (SNEL) and REGIDESO, the national water supplying company are both state companies. The ministry has a political impact but these companies have an autonomous management. Obviously, they run their own funds but we give some boost and control their actions as well. Moreover, we have noticed that there aree things to revise for instance for SNEL, the collecting rate of which decreased seriously down to 30%; but SNEL is even unable to collect all the funds. Therefore, if we can do it, I hope they would have means to meet some obligations in terms of maintenance. That is why we are developing a reforming program in order to motivate back state companies in general but especially commercial division of SNEL and REGIDESO as regards to our ministry. For example REGIDESO has 53% collecting rate. We need to improve policies of management. The state is also responsible for this decrease because they consume water and electricity but they have never paid. Therefore, we owe a lot of money to SNEL: about 400M dollars; and 245 M dollars to REGIDESO. The state is unable to pay all these overdue payments. Absolutely, internal governance of these companies must be reorganised.

Summit Communications: How do you get along with foreign investment partnerships?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: Companies make partnerships with investors but as long as the whole country is concerned; the Ministry examines agreements and submits them to the government board (council), which has to appreciate and finally we can allow the partnership. We can also identify partners and guide them as well. Currently, we don't prefer the monopoly system SNEL and REGIDESO have, respectively monopoly in producing electricity and distributing water throughout the country. We would like to open this sector to private partners in order to rouse competition and more efficient management system. Moreover, CORIREP (an initiative of the World Bank, which aims at reforming the state companies) and I expect that within a month, it will end up in reforming state companies like SNEL. Maybe, we can hand to private administrations the technical and commercial sectors. As regards REGIDESO, undoubtedly it will solve current problems in accessing to drinking water, the rate of which represents circa 25% for the whole country. In Kinshasa, there is a 30 cubic meters deficit; while local and international NGOs assist the population to access to drinking water in some areas of the country. But it is the responsibility of the government to provide sustainable responses for the population. So we are looking forward to seeing these reforms bring considerable improvements.

Summit Communications: What is the confident message you would like to deliver to potential investors in the sector of Energy?

Minister of energy, Mr. Mwanahembe: Generally speaking, an investor is one who likes taking risks. Frankly, in Congo, I admit that security conditions are no more a true reason to scare investors. We have got tremendous potentialities in exploiting oil virtually in all over the country because deposits are regularly identified. We have possibilities to exploit energy everywhere as well. Presently, we dispose of 100,00MW energy power (capacity) and 2.5% of this potential is exploited; possibilities to obtain such investments in energy sector. Energy highway directs Congolese electricity towards bordering countries and even far up to the Western Europe. Actually, we are planning to have interconnection with Europe from Egypt and eventually benefit in return from what we invested. However, I invite investors who are planning to come in supporting our country; in order to face these Millennium Goals in meeting these challenges positively: provide drinking water and electricity to everyone, and giving out petroleum to everyone as well.