Energy Dept assures that SA won’t run out of fuel after Sasol refinery shuts
Sasol Oil announced that it declared a Force Majeure on petroleum products as a result of delays in the arrival of crude oil shipments.
- SASOL
- Department of Mineral Resources and Energy
- Natref refinery
CAPE TOWN – The Energy Department said that the country will not run out of petrol and diesel.
The statement comes after the last South African Natref refinery shut down over the weekend.
Sasol Oil announced that it declared a Force Majeure on petroleum products as a result of delays in the arrival of crude oil shipments.
The company said that the delays were beyond its control and had impacted the availability of crude oil feedstock for processing at Natref, resulting in the closure of the refinery.
The department’s deputy director-general of mineral and petroleum regulation, Tseliso Maqubela: “I don’t expect that diesel and petrol would be affected greatly, however, we are concerned about the impact this is going to have on the availability of jet fuel, particularly for the airports.”
Maqubela said that officials would use this week to assess the impact of the move and what it would take to recover.
“There is the ability to import fuel in the country. We’ve always planned for such an eventuality but I think the impact on jet fuel because this was something that was not expected and is something we’re going to have to look at,” Maqubela said.
Sasol said that it estimated that the crude oil shipments would have started to arrive from this past Saturday and this would see the restoration of crude oil feed to Natref.
A crude tanker has since arrived in Durban and cargo dispatch processes are under way.
It said that Natref should start up to run at maximum production capability by the end of this month.
