The Honorable Minister of Energy has issued a statement regarding the progress at TAZAMA pipeline.
The process of converting TAZAMA pipeline from a conduit conveying commingled feedstock for refinery to one carrying finished product (diesel) is at 90% of all works and it will be completed by Saturday next week (18th March 2023).
All the crude oil (commingled feedstock), which was in the pipeline from the time INDENI Refinery was shut down by the PF government in April 2021 up to now, has since been removed, stored and is ready to be ‘refined’.
This is about 78,000 tonnes or 80 million litres of fuel (petrol and diesel). The INDENI plant is expected to fire up and start processing the commingled feedstock by next Saturday 18th March 2023. Once the commingled feedstock has been processed and sold, the funds raised will be used to pay for the costs incurred in cleaning and converting the pipeline, pay some of the debts owed by TAZAMA Pipeline Limited and for the operations and maintenance of facilities of TAZAMA Pipeline. Government, through the Treasury, already released K500m to INDENI for payment of reduncies for all workers and another K32 million for clearing of debts as well as for operations.
The cleaned-up pipeline will be used to pump diesel from Dar es Salaam to Ndola using the older and smaller pipe while the newer bigger-gauge pipe will pump finished products to Mpika terminal for uptake by tankers. The New Dawn Government shall expand the storage facilities and also increase numbers of pumping and loading gantries at Mpika to allow for better and more efficient conveyance. All diesel to be offloaded at Ndola and Mpika shall be transported to parts of Zambia using Zambian tankers only.
The operationalisation of TAZAMA Pipeline to carry finished products will reduce the pump price of diesel as transportation costs will be reduced.
Government is also working on reducing pump prices of both petrol and diesel by introducing bulk purchases of petroleum products, where Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) pool resources together and order at a known price and one which the government would have negotiated. Currently the procurement is liberal and disaggregated and this doesn’t help the consumer in many ways.
Hon. Eng. Peter Chibwe Kapala
Minister of Energy