Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote launched a $2.5 billion fuel storage and regional pipeline project at Walvis Bay, Namibia, on 4 November. The terminal is planned to hold 600 million litres of diesel and petrol, eight times the national oil storage facility of the state-owned National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia, and a 1,700-kilometre pipeline would branch towards Rundu and to Francistown in Botswana. Earlier plans described a much smaller terminal, and the petroleum facility still needs its own environmental approval. The hub would give Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe a western supply route through an Atlantic port, but each cross-border link needs agreements with the governments concerned. Dangote expects the terminal to be completed within 18 to 20 months.