By NATION REPORTER
PEOPLE should allay fears that the comingled oil that is in the Tazama Pipelines will not be pilfered when the contractor assigned to work on the pipeline commences works, says Transport and Logistics Minister Frank Tayali.
Mr Tayali said Government would pump the fuel in the pipeline to Indeni in a bid to recoup some money from it.
He said that people do not need to be scared that the country will lose out because Government would ensure that the comingled fuel would be pumped to Indeni.
“I can assure you that no fuel will either go to waste or even be pilfered because as a way of recouping some money, Government will ensure that all the stocks are taken to Ndola so that some money is gotten from the various products,” he said.
And when quizzed about the recent tender awarded to Agro Fuel Investment Limited to clear the 1, 700-kilometre TAZAMA Pipeline holding more than US$200, 000 million worth of comingled oil, Mr Tayali said his Energy counterpart Peter Kapala was in a better position to advise.
The contract to clear the pipeline for transporting finished oil products is US$51 million but no mention had been made of the more than US$200, 000 million comingled stock still being held in the pipeline
This has caused stakeholders to raise alarm claiming that the partial rehabilitation of the TAZAMA Pipeline by Government could be a short-term project aimed at raiding and plundering the more than US$200, 000 million deadstock in the pipeline.
Zambia’s former Ambassador to Ethiopia Emmanuel Mwamba says the security of the more than US$200, 000 million deadstock of comingled crude oil in the TAZAMA Pipeline has become uncertain following Government’s decision to shut down Indeni Oil Refinery completely.
Government has awarded Agro Fuel Investment Limited a contract to supply and deliver 100, 000 MT of Low Sulphur Gas Oil (LSG) and 15, 000 MT of Kerosene for the TAZAMA Pipeline conversion project.
The stakeholders are questioning the government about the safety of the US$200, 000 million of crude oil in TAZAMA now that the Pipeline is going through rehabilitation.
But Mr Tayali said that nothing of that sort is going to happen as all the security concerns had been looked into.
Mr Mwamba, one of the PF’s aspiring presidential hopefuls wondered whether TAZAMA was ready to start carrying finished oil products after only about 700 kilometres of the pipeline had been rehabilitated.
He said while government had rehabilitated about 700 kilometres of the TAZAMA Pipeline, about 1, 000 kilometres had remained unrehabilitated which he said was posing integrity issues of the pipeline.
