Africa-Press – Zambia. The announcement by Government to fire all the 327 employees of INDENI Refinery remains a very sad development in the New Dawn Government. Earlier, Government had placed the Refinery under ‘Care and Maintenance’.
Indeni Refinery requires $500million to modernise it. But even in its current capacity, fuel sourced through INDENI can be far cheaper than one brought through middle-men and Oil Marketing Companies.
The Indeni Refinery is configured as a Hydro-skimming refinery. Designed in 1973, the refinery is able to produce the following products: (a) unleaded petrol
(b) automotive gas oil (c) industrial kerosene (d) domestic kerosene (e) Jet fuel (f) Liquefied Petroleum Gas
(g) reformate
(h) heavy fuel oil and
(i) asphalt.
Crude oil is imported via the Kurasini Oil Jetty in Dar es Salaam Tanzania and is delivered to the refinery through the 1,704 kilometres Tazama Pipeline.
In order to meet increasing petroleum products demand both nationally and regionally, there are two choices; (a) build a new modern refinery that meets current and future national and regional needs or
(b) expand and modernize the present refinery to improve its efficiency and output. Building a new refinery is ruled out by its cost. Rehabilitation, expansion and modernization has been estimated at about US$500 million.
For More News And Analysis About Zambia Follow Africa-Press
