Address Indeni crude oil blues, State told

GOVERNMENT must urgently address the non-availability of crude oil at Indeni Petroleum Refinery which has been lying idle for three months, National Union of Transport and Allied Workers Union (NUTAW) has advised.

The non-availability of crude oil at Indeni in Ndola would have a ripple effect in the value chain on companies that depended on heavy fuel from the petroleum refinery.

NUTAW president Kingsley Kachenjela said if left unchecked, the plant safety at Indeni and Tazara pipeline would also be compromised as equipment needed to remain operational to function smoothly.

Mr Kachenjela said crude oil had fallen to an all-time low of less than US$30 a barrel on the international market.

This, he noted, could spur economic recovery as Zambia struggled to get out of economic recession associated with the Covid-19 partial lock down.

"Allowing oil marketing companies to be importing finished petroleum products with 20 percent tax waiver is counter-productive as it is likely to create job losses at Indeni and TAZAMA.

“This may also expose the Covid-19 reinvention risks through the Nakonde and Chirundu borders infection corridor," he said.

Mr Kachenjela stressed the need for Government to have a holistic approach to revamping Indeni if the country was to become energy secure.

He said Indeni was a strategic national asset which should not remain idle.

He maintained that importing finished petroleum products was not only creating job losses but that it was also damaging the fragile road network infrastructure.