The Indeni Petroleum Refinery, located in Zambia’s industrial city of Ndola with a capacity to refine 24,000 bbp/d of crude oil and process 1,200,000 tonnes of feedstock annually, has reportedly had no crude for over 60 days – the longest in the last decade.

The Power Generation and Allied Workers Union of Zambia, and the National Union of Transport and Allied Workers, in a joint statement released by the General Secretary of the Power Generation and Allied Workers Union of Zambia, Mutukelwa Lubita, said that there had been no activity at Indeni Oil Refinery despite the many assurances by Mathew Nkhuwa, the Minister of Energy.

Mr Lubita said that every patriotic citizen of Zambia needed to reflect on the efforts and selfless approach put in by the first president of Zambia, Dr Kenneth Kaunda, and his team. He said the situation raised many concerns and must not be allowed to continue.

“They built the pipeline from Dar-es-salaam through to Ndola where Indeni Refinery is. The plant is an expensive installation whose safety gets compromised when left to lie idle. It must not be allowed to be exposed to the elements while in non-working state.”

The secretary added that the COVID-19 pandemic should prompt the Ministry of Energy to support the fight against the pandemic by reducing exposure instead of increasing importation of finished products. “In our view, the importation is exposing tanker drivers to Covid-19 and consequently the entire country. The pandemic has brought with it untold suffering in the form of job losses.”

He raised concerns that the lack of activity at the refinery was causing uncertainties among workers as there had never been a lengthy shutdown like that for nearly twenty years. “We do sympathize with the workers for the mental torture they are being subjected to. This is not just torture to the workers but also a threat to the nation if transportation of fuel is left in private hands. It puts money in the oil marketing company’s and none in the government.”

He asked the authorities to consider allowing Indeni to purchase its own crude for refining by itself. “As we understand it, the money for crude oil should not be a challenge because it revolves. Crude oil is procured, it’s refined and sold, for a profit at that”, he added.

He stated that running the refinery was important as its shutdown had affected the Ndola lime operations. Ndola Energy contributes about 100 Megawatts of power to the Zesco grid, which was equally shutdown and affected the national power supply. He also said that the list of harms caused by  the shutdown was too long to be outlined.

Mr Lubita said that the neglect of the situation by the relevant authorities made the joint association of workers’ representatives to wonder about the rumours going around that some influential people were cashing in on the situation by directly or indirectly involving themselves in the importation of refined petroleum products.