Tazama Opens Up the Pipeline

TAZAMA has finally actualised the pipeline open access policy.

On 4th February 2025 the TAZAMA Pipeline Open Access Selection Committee announced that Titanium Oil Corporation / ADNOC Global Trading, Boltt Global Solutions Limited, and the Indeni Energy Company have been awarded contracts to use the pipeline to transport Low Sulphur Gasoil (LSG) from Dar es Salaam to Ndola.

The award followed a pre-qualification and tender process. An invitation to all Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for the pre-qualification process was published on 16th August, 2024 in the Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily Mail. On 17th December 2024 18 prequalified OMCs were announced.

In 2023 the Zambian government, through the Ministry of Energy, announced that it was opening up the TAZAMA Pipeline to all registered Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) interested in transporting Low Sulphur Gasoil (LSG) from Dar es Salaam to Ndola for the Zambian market. Zambia's open access policy is aimed at providing equitable access to the petroleum pipeline (capacity sharing) for all qualified OMCs.

The products transported through the Pipeline will be made available to all OMCs wishing to distribute the product to the local market. Distribution of the product to the OMCs shall be done through TAZAMA Petroleum Products, the Ndola Fuel Terminal and the Mpika Fuel Depot. Where necessary, the product shall be trans-shipped to other Government Fuel Depots as Strategic Reserves for easy access by OMCs. 

Following the introduction of the open access policy the government developed modalities for selecting users of the pipeline referred to as Pipeline Open Access Utilisation Guidelines for 2024-2025. The Guidelines provide procedures and criteria used by TAZAMA in selecting successful bidders for the use of the pipeline.

According to the Guidelines, users of the pipeline will be selected through a quarterly tender process. To qualify to take part in the tender, OMCs have to go through a pre-qualification process. The pre-qualification procedure is conducted by TAZAMA. The first leg of the pre-qualification process involves inviting licensed OMCs through a public advert in the national print media and other online publications. Thereafter interested OMCs apply to be prequalified. The second leg involves evaluation of application documents by a selection committee and finally the publication of pre-qualified OMCs. The prequalified OMCs become eligible to bid for access to the pipeline for a year.