By ADRIAN MWANZA
THERE is need to operationalise and upgrade Indeni Oil Refinery if the country is to avoid the looming fuel shortage, warns former Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) president Lubinda Haabazoka. The country has in the past two weeks experienced a fuel shortage with Lusaka and the Copperbelt being the hardest hit.
Oil Market Companies president Dr Kafula Mubanga said that the country’s crisis would normalise in the next two weeks as the stock piles were not sufficient. Dr Haabazoka said there was need for the government to improve Indeni Oil Refinery by ensuring that it was fully operational because the country risked having a fuel crisis.
He said a number of factors were at play which included the increase in the fuel pump prices of the commodity on the international market. Dr Haabazoka said that upgrading Indeni would ensure that the country was able to upgrade soft crude oil into other commodities unlike what was happening now. He said fuel prices had continued to go up and that some people had resorted to hoard the commodity so that they could reap some profit by creating an artificial shortage so that the prices could sky rocket.
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