. Mabumba

By CHATULA KANGALI –
THE Government will finance $575 million dollars for the upgrade of the Tazama Oil Pipeline and has started looking for a strategic partner to invest in the Indeni Petroleum Refinery in Ndola.
Energy Minister David Mabumba said there was need for the Tazama pipeline to be upgraded for it to remain efficient.
Mr Mabumba said Cabinet had approved the financing of the upgrade project which was expected to be complete by the end of next year.
He said the current operation capacity of 45 per cent was leading to the low output of Indeni Petroleum Refinery.
The Minister said the investment would include the increasing of the pipeline from eight inches to 12 inches, the changing of all the seven pumping stations and the optic fiber.
Mr Mabumba said Tazama would be required to pay back the loan through the pumping fees.
He said the project would also see the construction of 120,000 tonnes tankages in Dar e salaam in Tazania.
On Indeni, Mr Mabumba said there was need for a partner that will help improve the efficiency of the refinery.
Mr Mabumba said Indeni was in need of an investment of $600 million dollars in order to meet its design capacity of 1.1 million tonnes per annum and beyond.
He said Indeni had remained stagnant and was only producing 650,000 tonnes of fuel against its design capacity of 1.1 million tonnes.
Mr Mabumba said Government had learnt lessons from previous partners such as Total Energy and was hopeful that the new partnerships would be a success.
He said the coming in of a partner would help the refinery grow and diversify its operations thereby creating more jobs for the locals.
He said Government had no intenstions of privatizing the company because it wanted to secure investment and the jobs of the more 300 workers at the company.
Indeni Petroleum Board Chaiperson Yamfwa Mukanga said the company had bright future and that it had started the production of bitumen.
Mr Mukanga assured the workers of continued operations and growth of the company through additional investment.
He said the company was still viable and that it had this year paid a dividend of K7 million to Government.