Maravi

Indeni has petrol to last for 3 days

Indeni has petrol to last for 3 days
By George Chellah and Mwala Kalaluka
Saturday November 17, 2007 [03:00]

INDENI Petroleum Refinery only has 1.8 million litres of petrol for national consumption to last for about three days, contrary to the government’s announcement. But energy and water development minister Kenneth Konga said in a ministerial statement in Parliament yesterday that crude feedstock stock-piled in view of Indeni’s temporal closure would last up to the end of the month.

Ministry of Energy Permanent Secretary Peter Mumba on Thursday announced that at the time of the closure, Indeni, which is shutting down operations on Sunday, would have 11.9 million litres of diesel and 4.8 million litres of petrol.
But sources within Indeni yesterday disclosed that the refinery’s stocks of petroleum products had depleted to lower levels than those being announced by the government.

“The breakdown of the stocks of petroleum products available at Indeni as at 07:00 hours this morning (yesterday) are as follows: the combined stock for petrol that is in tank number 25 is 1.81444 million litres to last for about three days,” the source disclosed. “And for diesel which is in tank number 37 is 2.906 million litres which will last for about six days including imports that have been coming from Tanzania and South Africa. Now can those stocks go up to these days the permanent secretary is talking about? In fact, we are already consuming or giving out these remaining products.

“The truth is today as we are talking right now if somebody was to come and check the stocks at the Ndola Fuel Terminal (NFT) they will agree that there is no fuel there. Currently, Indeni is running its own generator to generate electricity. We are not getting electricity from ZESCO. So that is also a huge consumption on the reserves. All that, I am sure, Mr. Mumba has not taken into consideration when giving that announcement.”
The source said a fuel crisis was looming and there was need for the government to put in place measures that would assist the country.

“Trucks are coming in to cushion the effect of the shut-down. Even as we are talking now about three trucks from Dar-es-salaam have come at the refinery for purposes of weighing the products. But that is not enough as at now,” the source said. “So the truth is the crisis is there and the government should just admit. The only way to cushion the impact is for them to quickly bring in imports or finished products or else we will have a problem in the country.”

In a statement on Thursday, Mumba assured the nation that there would be enough fuel on the market during the period of Indeni’s shutdown.
Mumba said at the time of the closure, Indeni would have 4.8 million litres of petrol and 11.9 million litres of diesel.

Mumba said the petrol stocks would last for 10 days while the diesel stocks would last for 11 days.

He said the refinery would undergo a temporary shut- down awaiting the arrival of the next consignment, amounting to 60,000 metric tonnes, scheduled for November 24, 2007.

And Konga also said there was no need for panic because the country would continue to have sufficient stocks on the market to meet the demand during Indeni’s temporary closure.

He said another cargo of 90,000 metric tonnes was expected to arrive in Dar-es-Salaam between December 15 and 18.

“In addition to these arrangements, fuel from the two-year supply arrangement will be available in the country as from mid-February 2008,” he said. “The tender for this supply has closed a few minutes ago, today.”

He said oil marketing companies had committed a total of 52 million litres of diesel and 20 million litres of petrol during the period November to December 2007.

Labels: FUEL, INDENI

posted by MrK @ 5:56 AM