Maravi

(TIMES) Indeni reserves fuel for local consumption

Indeni reserves fuel for local consumption
By Times Reporter

INDENI Petroleum Refinery will not export any fuel due to increased local demand following the commissioning of Lumwana Mine and opening of new farm blocs, Energy Permanent Secretary, Peter Mumba (right) has said.

Mr Mumba said in Lusaka yesterday that the Government had abandoned earlier plans to export fuel to neighbouring countries after local consumption significantly shot up in the last few weeks with the commissioning of Lumwana Mine.

“We are happy that the economy is slowly picking up and this can be seen from the increased consumption level of fuel which has been attributed to mining activities at Lumwana Mine and the opening of new farming blocs,” Mr Mumba said.

Copper production at Lumwana Mine, whose current diesel consumption Mr Mumba did not state, is expected to reach 170,000 tonnes this year.

He said the Government had earlier intended to export diesel to neighbouring countries after national consumption fell by about 40 per cent following the temporary closure of some mines.

Indeni is the main source of diesel for parts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zimbabwe but lacks storage facilities.

The Government clinched a deal to export 10 million litres of diesel to the DRC but this had been reduced following the scaling down of mining operations in that country.

Mr Mumba said the Government was happy that the consumption of fuel, especially diesel, had increased and, given the current scenario, it was no longer necessary to export any fuel.

He said that recently, the fuel storage facility at Tazama in Ndola was filled up to capacity and the Government initiated negotiations to export so as to create space.

Mr Mumba assured that the Government would continue to ensure that the country had enough fuel to avoid any disruption of economic programmes currently going on in the country.

He commended the Tanzanian government for sourcing US$50 million towards the construction of a multi facility single-point mooring (SPM) used by Zambia to offload crude oil.

He said he was happy that the new facility would handle both crude and finished products once completed.

Works for the construction of the offloading bay with a capacity of 90,000 tonnes are expected to start next month.

Feasibility studies have already been conducted
Once the works begin, Zambia will continue to use the old SPM to offload the crude oil into the Zambian storage facilities.

Labels: FUEL, INDENI, PETER MUMBA

posted by MrK @ 4:29 PM