Indeni to resume production Friday?
Zambia’s sole 24,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery, which was shut down for maintenance Oct. 15 after it developed a fault, will resume production on Friday, energy minister, Kenneth Konga said yesterday.
‘The maintenance works are going as scheduled and Indeni refinery will be back in production on Friday,’ Konga told Reuters in an interview.
Indeni Petroleum Refinery has suffered sudden breakdowns of old machinery at the 36-year-old plant.
Owing to the collapse of a key component at Indeni, Zambia has in the last two weeks been experiencing acute shortages of both diesel and petrol, threatening to bring the economy of Africa’s largest copper producer to its knees.
Indeni is 50 percent each jointly owned by Total El Fina EIF and the Zambian government and latest market estimates indicate that the refinery needs $65 million for recapitalisation.
‘Negotiations for the government’s purchase of the 50 percent stake owned by Total in the refinery are progressing well and we should conclude everything this month,’ Konga said.
Total last year told Zambia it intended to sell its stake to another company but authorities in the southern African country objected and opted to take on full ownership
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To me, Indeni appears to have been a profitable business always. You can confirm that by the salary levels obtaining there. Why doesnt’t management learn to plough back for maintenance and modernization? Why allow this short- termism to go until the plant collapses?
There is always repeatations of Indeni 36, Indeni is old etc. People understand that a company is not a shirt which you can change every month if you want no, it can go over 100 years. We will never intrust any OMC to import fuel and abandon Indeni never.If we do away with Indeni Govt will will loose out Billions of revenue just because an OMC wants to make profit by asking the Govt to remove taxes.Govt should always support Indeni for the benefit of the country. An OMC will just make a profit and pull out at the end and People of zambia will suffer.
iwe chi Kenneth..tell us the truth ala!!have you failed you resign..we need competetnt pipo to run affairs of our nation..
The problem we have failed to understand is INDENI is not a problem; in fact the fuel produced at Indeni is one of the best it does not smell. When you talk about OCTANE number it is an index number for certain quality, equally depending on the climate and the altitude, that is the one which will determine which index of quality to produce. In Zambia the octane number can range from 87 to 92. 87 being regular in those days while 92 premium. I can safely say no one will complain that his/her vehicle is damaged due the bad fuel from Indeni. Indeni is 36 year it does not mean it is the oldest and they is nothing wrong with refinery only the improvement in technology in the area of instrumentation which critical, the rest of the things are not some thing talk about. A pipe can not be absolute even an electric motor.
The problem we have failed to understand is not a problem, infact the fuel produced at Indeni is one of best it does not smell. When you talk about OCTANE number is an index number for certain quality,equally depending on the climate and the altitude, that is the one which will determine which index of quality to produce. In Zambia the octane number can from 87 to 92. 87 being regular in those days while 92 premium. I safely say no one will complain that his/her vehicle is damaged.Indeni is 36 year it does not is the oldest and they is nothing wrong with refinery only the improvement in technology in the area of instrumentation which criticle, the rest of the are not some thing talk about. a pipe cant absolute even an electric motor. This is the background should understand indeni.
If Total does want to be part of the Indeni, we better buy their shares and Zambianise them to Zambians later. We can not be held at ransom by total. The Chinasse are waiting to invest moreover. This is the problem of dealing with western multinational, they are very dictatotial in their dealing. Conclude the talks fast and invite the Chinasse.
I hope you wont just rush to have bad quality fuel on the market, make sure the problem is resolved this time around..useless politicians…