Board to decide on Indeni
By TEDDY KUYELAMinister of Energy and Water Development Kenneth Konga says the board which was constituted to look into the affairs of Indeni Petroleum Refinery will before the end of this month make recommendations to Cabinet on whether Government can go ahead with the sale of 50 percent shares.
Mr Konga said Government will soon make a final decision on whether to sale the 50 percent shares of Indeni to Zambians or to a foreign investor once it receives recommendations from the Indeni board.
Mr Konga confirmed in an interview in Lusaka yesterday.
He said Government is in a hurry to find a lasting solution to Indeni Petroleum Refinery in order to make it more responsive in meeting the country’s fuel demands.
“The Indeni matter is currently receiving the utmost attention by both Cabinet and the board, which was constituted to look into the affairs of Indeni Company.
“So, there is no need for Zambians to panic over this matter as it is receiving active attention. What I can also say is that Government has not yet made a final decision over the matter,” he said.
Mr Konga said the move taken by Government to wait for recommendations from the Indeni board is aimed at coming up with a serious and viable investor who will come up with effective plans that will help improve operations of the petroleum company.
“Government wants to come up with an investor who will have serious plans of managing the refinery. The managing of the refinery will include the redesigning of the Tazama pipeline so that it can transmit finished products such as petrol and diesel,” he said.
And the bids that opened last Friday at the Ministry of Finance and National Planning revealed that five international investors have expressed interest in investing in the Indeni refinery under a public-private partnership.
The Expression of Interest (EOI) bids, which attracted a non-refundable fee of K45 million from each bidder, are a pre-qualification process for bidders.
The companies that have expressed interest in Indeni are, PriceWaterHouse-Dettonwelde-corcus (a consortium), SNC-Lavalin Pty Limited (from South Africa), Abantu Consultancy, Trasigura of the Netherlands and Citac-Vitol-Uranus (a consortium).
Indeni is currently 100 percent Government-owned following Total Finale International’s pull-out last November.
Government bought off the 50 percent shares that Total had in the company at a cost of US$5.5 million (about K25.3 billion).
/MISA%20promoting%20media%20diversity%20_%20pluralism%20_%20self-sufficiency%20_%20independence_files/spacer.gif){kind=spacer}
