THE petrol situation in Ndola, Kitwe and Lusaka yesterday normalised following the resumption of production by Indeni Petroleum Refinery.

A check at filling stations in the three cities by the Times showed that queues that had become a common feature had vanished.

In Ndola, the situation started normalising around 11:00 hours and by 15:00 hours, all the filling stations had received the commodity.

The situation was almost the same in Kitwe as most filling stations started selling petrol after receiving the commodity in the morning.

A check at Engen filling station at Freedom Park and Total filling station in the town centre showed motorists queuing up to buy fuel.

The situation was the same at Kobil in the town centre as petrol was available and there were no queues.

By midday, the queues had almost disappeared as only a handful of motor vehicles were waiting to refuel.

Officials at Indeni said that most parts of the country would have supplies by the weekend.

On Tuesday, Ministry of Energy and Water Development Permanent Secretary, Peter Mumba assured the nation that the supply of fuel would return to normal by yesterday after the offloading of the more than 600,000 litres of petrol produced on Monday.

And the Zambia Competition Commission (ZCC) is also confident that the shortage of petrol would be resolved following the resumption of petrol production at Indeni.

ZCC director-consumer and public relations Brian Lingela said in a statement yesterday that his organisation recognised the inconvenience the shortage of petrol had caused to the Zambian consumers and the economy, and looked forward to the stabilisation of the situation in order to maintain the economic gains the country had recorded.

"We are hopeful that the Government will find a lasting solution to the fuel situation in the country and will address issues of procurement of petroleum and infrastructure in the petroleum sector as doing so will ensure protection of Zambia's economy from shock," Mr Lingela said.