Health Reporter

Verify Engineering (Pvt) Ltd, a company wholly owned by Government, under the Ministry of Higher, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, has officially started producing oxygen, as from 15 July 2021, after several trial runs which were successfully completed on 14 July 2021.

A critical shortage of oxygen has been experienced throughout the country due to the spike in the COVID-19 Delta variant.  The production of oxygen by Verify Engineering (Pvt) Ltd is expected to significantly satisfy the increased demand for oxygen.  The increased number of patient admissions at different hospitals across the country has led to severe shortages of oxygen as more and more patients require it. 

The production of the oxygen will significantly reduce the price of oxygen that had reached dizzy heights as companies that still have the precious gas are charging US$50 per day for the oxygen.

Verify Engineering will start by filling up all the oxygen cylinders at its deport.  These will be used for distribution purposes, while they wait for bulk delivery tanks that were ordered from China and are currently on their way. 

The company expects eight delivery tanks which they will deploy to all the major hospitals and cities across the country.  The proximity of these delivery tanks to consumer end users will ensure that liquid oxygen is quickly delivered to the distribution centres timeously before evaporation.

According to health analysts, this will go a long way in assisting Government especially if it purchases three by 30 tonne haulage trucks to ease logistical constraints in the movement of oxygen across the country.

On 15 of July 2021, Verify Engineering (Pvt) Ltd conducted a trial to measure the actual oxygen production against the plant installed capacity.  It was discovered that the plants of oxygen at that company had a daily installed capacity of 16.5tons of liquid oxygen and 30tons of gaseous oxygen.  Besides oxygen, the plant also produces hydrogen by-products of 2.5tons per day.

Through its parent Ministry, Verify Engineering (Pvt) Ltd, intends to market and export some of the oxygen to countries such as Mozambique and Malawi to ensure they secure export markets for foreign currency earnings to meet their import requirements for sustainable production of oxygen.

Verify Engineering has removed the oxygen production monopoly as one company, Boc Gases was the only one which produced oxygen.. 

However, Boc gases was not meeting the oxygen requirements of the country leading to the import of 60% of oxygen to cover the deficit.