The Zambian government has scraped the 25% import duty on finished petroleum products in a bid to ease the current fuel shortage occasioned by faults at the country’s sole petroleum refinery last week, Zambia’s minister of energy and water development told Dow Jones Newswires on Saturday.

Kenneth Konga, said that the decision follows a request from oil-marketing companies that are set to import at least 30 million liters of fuel to guarantee a stable fuel supply in the country during the closure of the refinery, slated for Sunday.

"The duty has been waived for two weeks. We do not want to experience fuel shortages during the closure of Indeni," he said.

Indeni Petroleum Refinery is a major fuel supplier to Zambia’s copper and cobalt mines on the Copper Belt and North Western province. Indeni is jointly owned by the Zambian government and France-based Total SA (TOT).

Zambia has been experiencing erratic fuel supplies, mainly in the capital Lusaka, since the beginning of the week. The crisis has been exacerbated by panic buying and hoarding, according to officials. Zambia state News Agency Zanis reported Saturday that the shortage had spread to some cities on the Copper Belt province.

However, according to Konga, fuel imports from the Tanzania port of Dar Es Salaam and the Mozambiquean port of Biera started arriving in the country on Friday this week and would mitigate the current shortage on the market.

Fuel supplies to the mines also won't be interrupted because government has patterned with Kuwait-based Independent Petroleum Group SAKC (IPG.KW) and the Kenya-based Dalbit Petroleum Ltd. to import 50 million liters of fuel in the next two weeks. Copper mines consume more than 50% of Zambia’s imported fuel.

Zambia is Africa’s largest copper producer.

-By Nicholas Bariyo, Contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; +256 75 2624615; bariyonic@yahoo.co.uk