Some pipeline posers

NOW here's a thing: The Petroline consortium, which plans to build a pipeline from Matola in Mocambique to Nelspruit in South Africa, applies for "permission" from the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) and gets it -- despite the Department of Minerals and Energy objecting. So, Petroline goes ahead, confident that it will begin building by the middle of next year (2008). Meanwhile, the iPayipi Consortium applies for a licence from Nersa to build a (different) pipeline from Durban to the Reef, confident that it, too, will get a licence. Then the Cabinet steps in and says Transnet Pipelines can build a new line from Durban to the Reef (ignoring Nersa's role in the process) and the DME says, in effect, "tough luck to iPayipi". But, hang on, what if iPayipi does get a licence from Nersa? Will the Cabinet step in to stop it, as the initial DME reaction seemed to infer? Will an iPayipi pipeline be viable if there is already an expanded Transnet pipeline in place between Durban and the Reef? And what about this for a thought: Could it be that the Petroline project, being backed by black women (Women in Oil and Energy South Africa), has an inside track? Could the fact that iPayipi, despite its name, has a predominantly male South African Indian and South African white complexion, have scuppered its chances? Surely not. And, what if the Mocambican Government approves Petroline's plans and the South African Cabinet does not?