Friday, March 29, 2024

Explain the exact reasons for placing INDENI under care, UPND challenged

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A Member of the Central Committee in the former ruling party, the Patriotic Front (PF), Brian Mundubile, has challenged the United Party for National Development (UPND) government to come out in the open and explain the exact reasons, which were unknown to Zambians why it has taken the decision to place INDENI OIL Refinery under care and maintenance

Mr. Mundubile, who is also a Member of Parliament for Mporokoso Central in Northern Province and the leader of the opposition in Parliament said in Kasama shortly before departure for Lusaka yesterday that the decision government has taken lacks proper expert input.

Mr. Mundubile said that the New Dawn government of President Haakainde Hichilema did not conduct a Comprehensive Regulatory Impact Assessment before reaching the decision.

Mr. Mundubile said there could be other reasons unknown that motivated the decision which he said, Zambians would also want to know.

Mr. Mundubile said that now that government wants to transport finished products the same way crude oil was transported, Zambians want to know what security measures they have put in place, adding that the CRUDE OIL being transported through the TAZAMA Oil Pipeline did not attract any thefts, saying that now that the government wants to transport a finished product through the same old, leaking pipeline, they should explain the measures they have put in place to protect the product.

Mr. Mundubile said he does not believe that the UPND government has put in enough security measures in place to protect the product and said technically, the system losses which resulted in throughput only accounted for leakages and not theft.

He advised that government to rethink their position and challenged the Minister responsible to tell the nation which middlemen government was removing in that value chain, how much are the savings and then what the costs of their decision would be.

”Government needed to consider the plight of the workers first before embarking on this mammoth project and I know there was no credible engagement with workers’ representatives that I believe would have resulted in making a better decision”, he said.

Mr. Mundubile said he was surprised that the UPND wanted to work with a defeatist attitude where it abandoned difficult situations to take the easy way out

“Zambians expected Bally to ” fix” things and not to do it in a way of abandoning”, he concluded.

21 COMMENTS

  1. Indeni, while it has outlived its usefulness, has an important role to play in the petroleum supply chain albeit in the short-term. However, for the long term energy security, Indeni’s future is bleak. In the short-run Indeni can help with ensuring energy security and reliability of petroleum supplies as opposed to depending entirely on OMCs which are privately owned. The is a risk that private OMCs can be holding-off supplies deliberately to influence prices and arm-twist GRZ. For the long-run, and going by the proper definition of energy security (which does not only consider affordability and availability, but also timely investments to supply energy in line with economic developments and environmental needs) Indeni has to rethink its vision and strategic position to be the driver of…

  2. cntd/-….of renewable such as methanol and hydrogen. It can be a company that drives the decarbonization agenda of mobility in the country. It can also diversify into solar and wind and be an independent power producer (IPP) for example. It should fully exploit the ministry of green economy to bring these innovations into life.

  3. When a hyena wants to eat its own children, it first accuses them of smelling like goats. When the Now Dark government wants to sell a state asset to its allies, it first accuses it of not being viable. After KCM and Mopani, Indeni has been cleverly added to the list. We’re waiting for a policy declaration on Zesco. We’re in a fix. Zewelanji told us

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  4. Some executives rush decision in a thinking aloud or thinking and acting at the same time mode. Running a country with a flash of decisions is highly dangerous. In the same manner the cipante pante CFD is budgeted without structural planing at the base.
    Good observation from Mundubile, if crude on the pipeline was prone to leakages, what about Low Sulphur Gasoil (LSG) Diesel, a finished product? Remember a finished product would attract other problems as cited. Is A KK master piece in INDENI a part of IMF/WORLD BANK condition chop board? Informed decisions are better than me, myself and I alone will fix it. I have always opposed fuel laden trucks on our roads.

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  5. You have a long haul at renovating a pipe line to transport Low Sulphur Gasoil (LSG) Diesel from Tanzania to Indeni. You have to beef up security and maintenance staff to ensure that none goes to waste.
    Is this a short haul term or a long term project? This party, upnd, is a party of dreamers. Some dreams are however good, others are a shadow of impending impropery assessed doom.

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  6. Just wait…in a few months someone will come from somewhere and buy the plant and reasons will be given. Tazama Pipe Line was safe in the 1960s when people respected public property. Those days trucks carrying copper concentrate would overturn and no body would be interested in the stuff. But it’s different today. Anything is a potential quick money maker and therefore in danger.

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  7. They are the ones who put Indeni in this situation but re now abdicating their responsibilities and passing on the baton. Where shall the money come from to pay the workers when you left a $600m debt to oil suppliers? Charlatans.

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  8. Brethren we can hate or choose to love PF on this matter but they never certified Indeni dead. The truth of the matter is the alleged $26m fuel subsidy per month which we want to save by removing INDENI will only change its name to go and patch the roads which will be extensively damaged by fuel Tankers for the benefit of few politicians, where is the saving then. Secondly, no one can pump any finished fuel product in that TAZAMA Pipeline.

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  9. Alfred @ 1 and 3, economic theory has met economic reality in the Indeni Petroleum Refinery issue. The economic/financial reality is that the company doesn’t hv the cash to diversify into wht u’re suggesting because it has not been selling much fuel of late while it has had fixed costs to pay. Political theory will also meet political reality in this matter. Energy minister Peter Kapala should refer Brian Mundubile to the record left by the PF’s last energy minister in reply to his challenge.

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  10. It’s a puzzle brethren, a finished petroleum product like diesel passing through Kitonga mountains of Tanzania needs proper security. Lets listen from one another.

  11. PF and its surrogates should not comment on matters affecting INDENI because all operation problems were masterminded by them. Mathew Khuwa as Energy minister went to Indeni in October 2020 where he lied to the employees that PF Govt had procured 10 (Ten) cargoes of feed-stock which up to now has not been delivered.

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  12. Ubwafya, our friends in upnd know everything and refuse to listen to any different view aside from HH.
    These are national assets which belong to all Zambians and not upnd.
    Why don’t we learn from the mistakes committed by MMD in the privatisation process?
    Anyway, no surprise there, kabili ba Musokotwane ebaliko. So kupwilikisha nomba tulya twasheleko!
    Zambia, cry my beloved country.

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  13. A study on the supply of petroleum products into Zambia conducted in 2014 recommended four options to consider (i) invest in Indeni refinery to improve the refinery efficiency and product quality ($ 64 million) and replace the Tazama crude oil pipeline ( $ 735 million) (ii) Build a new refinery of 50,000 bpd by 2023 ($ 1.275 Million and replace the Tazama pipeline ($668 million) (iii) replace with a new multi-products pipeline ($707 million) and use parts of indeni as a receiving terminal ($0) and (iv) Decommission Tazama pipeline and revert to using road tankers for product delivery (no major capital cost). No tangible decisions or actions were undertaken by PF to follow up. This lack of actions to address known problems affecting Indeni refinery and Tazama pipelines explains why Indeni…

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  14. This behavior of always singing the song of “ooh, PF messed up things in this area that’s why we can’t fix it in the right way” must come to an end!! You are now in power and MUST work to correct things that you condemned PF for during the campaigns. This is no time to tell us about PF govt ills or mistakes because we already heard from you and that is why we voted for you overwhelmingly, we are NOT in the campaign period anymore for goodness’ sake !! Can you work and “fix” things that you told the youths that “Bally will fix it”
    Twapapata, time is running out on you whilst you are busy talking about PF. In any case, PF are not even contesting all the insinuations you are leveling against them daily because they are busy nursing their wounds of defeat. So please get down to…

  15. In this article Mundubile of PF is asking the new government to explain the exact reasons why Indeni refinery should be on care and maintenance. So people commenting who may not even be UPND members are responding! Yes the new government is taking actions but has the right to respond to PF when PF wants to lay the blame on the new government on things the PF damaged. When fixing things, one needs to know how they were damaged and the extent of the damage in order to fix the underlying cause of the damage.

  16. UPND should keep every single job remaining in the nation and nurse them like eggs, don’t export them to other countries keep them for our people.
    This is the mistake we saw in 1991 most of the zambian jobs were exported to southafrica and zimbabwe, KL southafrica, Dunlop to zimbabwe with machinery to name a few.
    We plead for our people to stay in jobs.

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