And Lieutenant General Shikapwasha has dispelled the insinuation from some quarters that government is shifting goal posts with regard to the supply of fuel situation, and maintained that the fuel supply situation in the country will be normalized over the weekend and onwards when Indeni resumes operations.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said in Lusaka today that 1.705 million litres of petrol and 1.5million litres of diesel will be distributed to eight provinces, with Lusaka receiving the bulky for each of the two commodities.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said this in Lusaka today at a press briefing.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha, who is also Information and Broadcasting Services Minister said 19 tankers offloaded petrol at TAZAMA in Ndola making a total of 1,705,000 litres out of which a big portion will be given to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to distribute while the rest 700,000 will be consumed in the country on a daily basis.
He said 40 tankers transport fuel on a daily basis that are entering Zambia and bemoaned that the Southern Africa hasn’t got enough tankers to transport the commodity.
He further said diesel consumption in the country is close to one million while 700,000 litres of petrol are consumed in Zambia on a daily basis.
He said Total, Engen, Kobil, Petropda, Oyrx, Sperctra and Pegasus that are receiving fuel imports and these imports that are now supplementing the government imports.
Meanwhile, answering questions from Journalists, Lt-Gen Shikapwasha says government is still negotiating with Indeni on the offer shares.
He explained that government was going ahead to buy the shares at Total but indicated that a large share will be floated to the government and the rest Total will decide what to do with the shares.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said government is prospecting to open oil stations in the Gwembe valley in the Southern and in the North-Western province where huge quantities of crude oil has been discovered.
He said Zambia cannot import crude oil from neighboring Angola because of the lack of communication infrastructure like railways line and pipe line to transport the crude oil unlike on the Copperbelt where all the facilities were readily available.
And the Chief Government Spokesperson has lashed out at Forum for Democracy and Development president Edith Nawakwi for undermining government operations.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said government is working at full capacity and doing everything possible to improve the economy steadily and the Rupiah Banda administration should be appreciated and on merit and not criticized unnecessarily even amid this fuel crisis.
He revealed that Zambia experienced a lot of challenges such as the Carlingtone maize deal when Ms. Nawakwi was minister in the second republic.
[ZANIS]
Ba shikapwasha naimwe i wonder if the north-western province crude oil discovery story is true
Bull….????????????…………………………….There aint no fuel in North-Western or anywhere in Zambia,that story just get highlighted during campaigns.
Lies from s.t.u.p.i.d ministers won’t fill up our tanks. MMD has just failed to manage the economy and they should just admit it, instead of telling lies every day.
someone please tell me,IS SHIKAPWASHA still a reverend?if so , @ which church?
The problem here is not applying effective displinary measures to those responsible for this fuel crisis. People resopionsible for planning in the energy sector and other senior political figures must be charged with economic sabortage due to gross negligence. We take such serious matters too lightly in Zambia, WHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are really failing to govern ourselves.
WE NEED TO ENHANCE PRODUCTION OF FUEL IN ZAMBIA. PROF SAASA’S CALL TO INJECT MONEY IN TO THE REFINERY IS VERY IMPORTANT. CALLS BY CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS TO DO AWAY WITH INDENI ARE SELFISH AND WILL LAND THIS COUNTRY IN TO PROBLEMS. INDENI IS A VIABLE COMPANY AND JUST NEED SOMEONE WITH MONEY TO INVEST. STATEMENTS OF IMPORT INFLUENCED BY CERTAIN OMCs WILL LAND US IN TO PROBLEMS. ITS NOT WISE TO SURRENDER THE SUPPLY OF FUEL TOTALLY IN TO OMCs WHO WILL DICTATE THEIR OWN PRICES AND MAY STOP SUPPLY ANY TIME THEY WANT. MEANWHILE GOVT PROJECTS WILL SUFFER BCOZ THEY WILL BE FORCED TO REMOVE TAXES LOOSING BILLIONS OF KWACHA EVERY MONTH FOR FEW SELFISH INDIVIDUALS. LETS BE CAREFUL WITH CERTAIN SUBMISSIONS.
The minister of Energy said he would resign if there was a fuel shortage. So we’ve had a fuel shortage for over a week now, so what is he still doing in office. He should have resigned ages ago!
The minister of Energy said he would resign if there was a fuel shortage. So we’ve had a fuel shortage for over a week now, so what is he still doing in office? He should have resigned ages ago!
I really want to understand what is going wrong in this sector. And we also need to evaluate the cost of these shortages so that someone can be held accountable . Then maybe the responsible people will take their job more seriously in future