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Zambia: Fuel crisis looms as sole oil refinery shut down
Mon. July 14, 2008 09:06 am.- By Bonny Apunyu. -
(SomaliNet) After the shutdown last week of Zambia's sole oil refinery, Zambia's oil marketing companies have started importing refined petroleum products, energy officials said on Monday.
Last week, Zambia’s Indeni Oil Refinery was shut down after it ran out of crude oil following delays in agreeing a long term financing deal for crude oil imports by Zambian authorities and the Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZNCB).
"Indeni was closed last week because it ran out of (crude oil) feedstock and we are waiting for the next cargo which will arrive between 21 and 25 July," energy permanent secretary Peter Mumba told journalists from state media.
Mumba said oil marketing firms had been allowed to import petrol and diesel to keep stocks available for the copper mines and other industry, following a reduction two weeks ago in import taxes for fuel to keep pump prices lower.
A senior manager at BP Zambia told reporters on condition of anonymity that "Caltex Zambia is importing petroleum products from Mozambique while BP Zambia is importing from South Africa. This is the third week since we started to import fuel."
Mumba did not specify when the refinery was closed and when the government allowed marketing firms to start importing fuel.
He said Indeni would start full operations within the next two weeks.
Zambia, which has previously imported oil products from South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania, uses 1.6-million litres of diesel per day and one million litres of petrol, mainly in its vast copper and cobalt mines, the country's economic lifeblood.
The government is in talks with the ZNCB, a unit of Rabo Bank of the Netherlands, for a two-year oil import financing deal, after the failure to agree a deal with Stanbic Bank Zambia, a unit of South Africa's Standard Bank, early this year.-Reuters
News Category: Africa
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