Page 4 - AfrOil Week 05 2023

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

Hichilema (L) and Lourenço (R) met in Luanda on January 11 (Photo: Twitter/@HHichilema)

Zambia’s African fuel

plans: fact or fiction?

NewsBase considers factors that could support or hinder Lusaka’s

plan to import and use only petroleum products refined in Africa

NEWSBASE has recently covered bilateral talks underway.
between Angola and Zambia that focused on In support of these projects, Zambian Pres-
WHAT: investment in a refinery and pipeline that could ident Hakainde Hichilema said during a press
Landlocked Zambia has aid Lusaka in diversifying its supply of refined conference: “It makes no sense to import fuel
signed deals with Angola products. from other parts of the world when we have a
to invest in refinery and During the meeting, Zambia’s president neighbouring producer. I don’t know how we
pipeline projects that of- made comments suggesting that his country have managed to maintain this situation of buy-
fer a new supply stream. should only import products refined in Africa. ing fuel from Saudi Arabia and other parts of the
This week, we will seek to assess whether this world and not from our neighbour.”
WHY: could become reality.
These deals offer Neighbourly support
benefits that are mutually
attractive to Zambia and Refined ambition Over-reliant on limited sources of fuel imports,
Angola, though the former As part of efforts to improve bilateral relations, Zambia has suffered supply shocks which have
stands to gain more. the parties concluded infrastructure deals with led in recent years to high prices at the pump,
an agreement for the construction of the Ango- despite the government’s efforts to keep them
WHAT NEXT: la-Zambia Oil Pipeline (AZOP). This came down. Both Lusaka and Luanda have previously
The refinery has been on along with an announcement by Zambia that the underlined the importance of investments in the
the drawing board for country would acquire a 70% stake in Angola’s oil and gas sector as a means of achieving mutual
around two decades, and new 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) Lobito refin- economic growth.
there is little to indicate ery, located in the Benguela Province, which is “It is very natural that Zambia, as our neigh-
progress will come due for launch in 2025. bour, has a great interest in acquiring these fuels
quickly, while Zambia The planned 1,400-km pipeline would con- in Angola, in the neighbouring country, espe-
is enacting major fuel nect the coastal refinery with Lusaka, running cially when Angola has a greater capacity to
reforms. through the Lobito corridor and Zambia’s pro- refine the crude oil it extracts.” Angolan Presi-
lific Copper Belt. A feasibility study is currently dent Joao Lourenço said.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 05 02•February•2023