Africa-Press – Zambia. TAZAMA has a constant dead stock of comingled crude oil that lie in the pipeline. This is to enable the crude oil to be pumped from Da-es-Salaam into the 1,710 kilometres pipeline to be available at INDENI Refinery in Ndola almost instaneously.
This dead stock is worth over $90million and together with that in the tanks in Ndola comes to $200million ( it’s usually a 3months supply). Agro Fuel Investments Limited has been awarded to supply and deliver 100,000 metric tonnes of low sulpher gas oil (LSG) and 15,000 metric tonnes of kerosene for the pipeline conversion project.
The idea is push-out the crude oil deadstock worth millions of dollars, allow INDENI to process it, empty the pipeline and prepare the pipeline, clean it with kerosene for conversion to carry finished products. The contract sum is worth K374,244,500.00 ( $51million). Questions; The project also installed modern pump stations along the pipeline.
However the rest of of 1,000km remain unrehabilitated with integrity issues. Without finishing the rehabilitation of TAZAMA, can such a pipeline carry finished products if it had integrity issues with heavier comingled crude oil?
CONCLUSION
Speaking to industry experts reveals that this appears to be one-off project targeting the crude oil deadstock lying in the pipeline. It is clear that Government has demonstrated since 2019, that it can run the fuel sector without TAZAMA and INDENI. So this is a raid of the deadstock!
Industry experts have recommended that we invest in INDENI REFINERY and convert it to a full refinery so that it can process any crude oil from Saudi Arabia, Angola, Nigeria or Iran. The comingled crude required under current arrangements has sufficed so so far but a long-term solution to INDENI Refinery must be invested in.
TAZAMA and INDENI are strategic nayional assets and the careless approach to abandon these facilities, investments built at great cost, puts the country at fragile and energy risk. And associated industries that benefited from by-products of INDENI such as Ndola Energy and Ndola Lime are dead and the cost of producing copper has risen as refineries have to import heavy fuels required in the process.
This contract therefore serves short-term interests to provide cheap fuel to the country but may render the TAZAMA Pipeline moribund as security issues may not allow or may sabotage a commercial transportation of finished products using the pipeline.
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