Zambia to import fuel after oil refinery fault

Zambia to import fuel after oil refinery fault
Written by Reuters
Sunday, October 11, 2009 9:56:20 PM

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia will start importing diesel and petrol from Tanzania after the southern African country's only oil refinery developed a fault, a senior government official said on Saturday. Peter Mumba, permanent secretary in charge of energy, said in a statement Indeni petroleum refinery had developed a fault and would be shut down on Thursday for two weeks for maintenance.

"The catalyst, which a component at the refinery that is responsible for production of petrol has weakened such that production of petrol has (been) reduced," Mumba said.

"In order to have stocks during the shutdown, 15 million litres of petrol and 25 million litres of dieasel are being imported from Tanzania," Mumba said.

Most filling stations around Lusaka had already run out of petrol and there were long queues of frustrated motorists.

Mumba said loading of the imported fuel in Dar-es-Salaam would begin on Wednesday next week and the fuel was expected to arrive in Zambia five days later.

The government had asked Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to release fuel stocks they were keeping in reserves to ensure that there was no crisis before the arrival of imported fuel arrived.

The refinery was due for routine maintance shut-down in mid-October.