Govt congratulates PetroZim Line

Partson Mbiriri
I AM greatly honoured to be afforded this opportunity to address you as we celebrate Petrozim Line (Private) Limited’s certification to two internationally recognised standards, namely the ISO 14001: 2004 which specifies requirements for an environmental management system (EMS) to enable an organisation to develop and implement a policy thrust and objectives which take into account legal provisions and other requirements to which the organisation subscribes, and information about significant environmental aspects; and OHSAS 18001: 2007; Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series, which is an internationally applied standard for occupational health and safety management systems.

It exists to help all kinds of organisations put in place demonstrably sound occupational health and safety performance. Over and above our JVA partner in Petrozim Line, NOIC (the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe), was working towards ISO 9001: 2008 certification, which they attained earlier in the year.

However, let me state that the ISO 14001: 2004 has since been reviewed to ISO 14001: 2015 with OHSAS 18001 still to be published, so there is definitely further work ahead for Petrozim Line.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me briefly describe to you the role of Petrozim Line in the Zimbabwean economy. Petrozim Line owns and operates the 208km long Feruka-Msasa pipeline and is responsible for the bulk transportation of liquid and gaseous fuels into the country.

It plays a pivotal role in the fuel supply chain as it transports fuel through the pipeline. The company has the capacity to deliver six million litres of fuel per day from Feruka to Msasa. In terms of the contribution, the company delivers around 80 percent of the petrol and diesel requirements for the country.

It possesses key infrastructure which includes; the pump station at Feruka, the pipeline and ancillary assets from Feruka to Msasa, the pump station at Wilton near Marondera as well as the tank farm at Msasa.

The company also maintains the pipeline servitude from Feruka to Msasa, hence owns significant plant and machinery for that purpose. The heavy capitalisation of the company enables it to effectively and safely transport diesel, petrol and jet A1 on behalf of its customer, NOIC.

As you can see for yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, this company is of immense strategic and security importance to the Zimbabwean economy and Zimbabwe’s body politic in particular.

Allow me now to describe the relationship between Petrozim Line and NOIC. Petrozim Line was established in 1988 as a joint venture company between Lonrho Plc and National Oil Company of Zimbabwe with each having 50 percent shareholding.

After the restructuring of NocZim into two entities in 2011, namely NOIC and Petrotrade (Private) Limited, the 50 percent NocZim shareholding in Petrozim Line was allocated to NOIC, was mandated with managing national oil infrastructure.

So as it stands, ladies and gentleman, Petrozim Line is owned by NOIC (50 percent) and Lonmin Plc (50 percent), who assumed the Lonrho share holding.

The operations of the company are governed by a joint venture agreement (JVA) . . . I am confident that with this double certification, Petrozim Line has addressed key business issues such as product quality, process safety, and general security and risk associated with their operations.

We are confident this will result in increased throughput volumes to the regional markets thereby increasing both company and national revenues. While applauding the board, management and staff of Petrozim Line for this achievement, I would like to urge them not to sit on their laurels but to think ahead.

Let this certification be a stepping stone to continuous development and improvement. To quote Thomas Huxley; “The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other foot somewhat higher”.

Team Petrozim Line has challenged itself and has triumphed. So it has set for itself a higher bar which it now needs to attain and sustain. Once again congratulations to Team Petrozim Line.